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Tips for Teaching Young Children

Managing a group of young children in an active dance environment can take a lot of patience, lesson planning and problem solving. In the preschool age group, you have to come to the lesson prepared with strategies for short attention spans and behavioral challenges. Here are some tips that will help your young students stay engaged and attentive throughout your class.

Keep your class in motion.

Try not to spend too much time focusing the class on one single activity. For young students, five minutes of any activity is too long. Try not to spend more than ten minutes in one formation or on one aspect of the class. Always come prepared with more activities than you have time for in class. This way if your student's start to loose interest, you can quickly move onto a new activity and regain their attention.

Demonstrate and participate.

For older children it may only be necessary to demonstrate the actual movement or dance. But younger children will want to take their cues from you and imitate. If you want your students to pretend they are the tress in a forest then you must also be a tree with them. To get 100% out of your students, you must show them 150%. Ask your student what the proper way to perform a movement is, then show them, and then have them practice this with you.

Offer your students choice.

Giving your students the freedom to make a choice is a great way to keep the class attentive, even more so with younger children who are learning to become independent with their thoughts and ideas. But be sure not to offer limitless possibilities. Young children work best with an either/or decision. Give your young students the choice between dancing sharply or smoothly. Or give your students the chance to vote for what two movement to practice in the lesson. But again, it is best to limit the outcome to two possibilities. Not only for a quick decision, but also so that it can relate to your overall lesson plan.

Make a creative objective.

Repetition and routine is essential to a dance class, but with younger children, repeating the same movements every class can make them loose interest. Make a creative objective. This will increase their interest in participating. For example, if you are practicing gallops, inform the children that you are going to ask them their favorite animal when it is their turn. Tell them to keep it a secret until it is their turn. Then when they have performed the gallop, you can tell them that they can pretend to become that animal. This will increase the child's interest in the gallop and keep them waiting patiently for their turn. Always remember to announce what you are going to ask of them and what you will be expecting before you begin.

Give positive feedback.

Young children respond very well to positive feedback. But try to be specific with your praise. Complementing a students arm position or jump will go a lot further than the less specific, "good job." If your whole class is misbehaving, look for the one child that is doing anything correctly and single them out with a positive comment. This will have a far better effect than punishing the whole class.

Minimize negative responses.

Negative words such as "Stop" and "Don't" should be used sparingly, unless there is a risk of danger. A child will stop responding after a certain amount of time when their name has been used in a negative way. A child may misbehave to look for negative attention, which is better than no attention at all, so preempt that by first giving them positive feedback in a positive environment.

Keep your energy level consistently high.

Young children are involved in a dance class to have fun. They are not yet at an age where working hard at something will be rewarding for them. They want to have fun and you should be the most fun thing in the room. Try varying the tempo and volume of your voice, keep your energy high and be confident enough to sometimes be over-the-top to engage their attention.

Managing a class of young children is a lot of work, but once you find out your way to effectively do this, it can be a hugely rewarding process. As a teacher, it will come down to effective lesson planning and finding out what does and does not work. But watching the children grow to enjoy dance and movement thanks to your instruction is a wonderful reward for all your hard work.

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