The ABCs of setting up a preschool dance program

By Nancy Wozny with Rosemarie Boyden

Part 1: Getting Started

Starting a preschool program can be one of the most rewarding and challenging choices a dance studio owner can make. Congratulations on making a difference in a child’s life. Now comes the hard work. To help you get started, preschool guru and master teacher Rosemarie Boyden outlines the essentials of a good program. Boyden, a former school owner and director who is currently on staff at American Academy of Dance in Mansfield, Massachusetts, has 55 years of experience in the field.

Step 1: Educate yourself
Just because these students are little and don’t have any dance background doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Now is the time to take in a conference or seminar. Visit classes in your area and talk to other teachers with successful programs. You can even hire an experienced teacher to walk you through the process. There are several excellent books on teaching preschoolers, and you should start building a library right now. Teaching children is a lifelong learning activity. Plan on becoming acquainted with basic child development as well.

Step 2: Practical matters
For 3-year-olds, a class size of 8 to 10 is ideal. For 4- to 5-year-olds, 15 is a good limit. Classes should range in length from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the children’s maturity level, and should meet once a week. It’s a good idea to establish an appropriate atmosphere for dance right from the start, so children should wear leotards and tights with their hair out of the face. Boys should wear a white T-shirt and shorts or sweatpants that are not too loose.

Step 3: Hire your faculty
Teaching preschoolers requires mature people who have experience working with children. It should never be a job for a beginning teacher. It’s vital to hire people who love working with children and who are willing to continue to hone the program. You might want to observe a teacher in action before hiring. Parents are trusting you with their precious offspring, sometimes for the first time. Look for a positive attitude, enthusiasm, and sincerity, since your teachers will need these qualities in abundance.

Step 4: Choose a curriculum
There’s no winging it when it comes to working with little ones. You need concrete lesson plans for the semester. Several fine curriculums are available commercially, and you can always adjust them and add your own flavor. Get recommendations from experienced teachers about what works best and proceed from there. Survey the market, head back to the library, and consult the experts. A vast amount has already been written about teaching preschool children, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

Step 5: Get your classroom ready
It’s time to hit the dollar store to collect some basic teaching props. These visual tools, along with simple musical instruments, can really enhance learning. Scarves of many different colors, hula hoops, Hawaiian leis, carpet squares, and rubberized mats are must-haves, as are child-size tambourines, maracas, and tom-tom drums. Sticks, blocks, and triangles are great for 5-year-olds. Useful seasonal items include pumpkins, bells, and flags, and so on.

Make sure that all props and instruments are child safe. A chest to keep them out of view when not in use is essential. The rooms should be completely childproofed as well, which includes covering electrical outlets and any exposed sharp edges.

Children often bring in their artwork from school and it’s handy to have a bulletin board where it can be displayed.

Step 6: Prepare your music
Preschoolers respond to music that is lively and age appropriate. The tempo should be varied to develop ear training. Music without lyrics works best because if the song is too familiar, they will start to sing. Sometimes that’s great, but most often you want the children to focus on the movement. Use a mix of familiar and unfamiliar choices.

A huge assortment of preschool music and even regular classroom music is available. (See “Super Songs for Kids” in this issue for DSL readers’ recommendations.) It’s best to choose music that is specifically designed for children. You will know right away if they respond to it. Overly orchestrated music may be too overwhelming. Make sure your choices match up with your curriculum.

Step 7: Market the program
With a faculty, props, and music all in place, only the little ones are missing. Fall and January are excellent times to start a new program since parents are often looking for indoor things to do with their young children.

Once you know that you’ll be starting in a few months, promote the program to parents who you know have preschool children. Have information about the new program on view on the front desk. A separate, well-placed ad with a photo of a smiling, dancing child is one way to get the word out to new parents. Don’t forget to include the program in your e-newsletter blasts and add it to your website.

Be clear in your ads and announcements that the class is an educational opportunity and that motor and social skills will be developed. Parents need to know that it’s not just fun and games.

Step 8: Monitor the program
Managing a successful preschool program takes constant attention. With each new batch of children come new issues for the teacher.

Make sure that you keep an open line of communication with your teachers: Is the class working as a team? Is every child included? How are your props working? Do any need to be cleaned or replaced?

If there are behavior issues, the teachers need an effective way to deal with them. Teacher meetings are essential. Plan on visiting classes unannounced as well to monitor progress. Also pay attention to the parents. Do they seem pleased? How are you incorporating parent feedback into your program?

Not every group of children will learn at the same speed. You might have a group of 3-year-olds one semester for whom you have to scale activities back, while other classes have a more mixed range. Maybe a class is too large and it’s time to get an assistant. A mature senior student or another teacher who would like to add preschool teaching to her skill set could make an excellent assistant.

Is the curriculum too structured or not structured enough? Frustration is an important sign of several problems: Your students are ready to go to the next level; you need to slow your class down, or you must find a new way to present the material. A strong preschool program is one that adapts to the particular set of children in the room.

Rosemarie Boyden’s Top 10 Tips for Preschool Teachers

1. Start with less; teachers often make the mistake of bringing in too much material at first.
2. Repetition, repetition, repetition—it’s the core of learning.
3. If something isn’t working, slow your class down. Children tire easily.
4. Alternate lively movements with slow movements.
5. Allow time for each of your students to talk. They have things to say to you. You need to leave time for that; plus, it allows for a nice rest time.
6. Keep parent communication ongoing. Mingle with the parents and let them know you are monitoring their children’s progress.
7. Agree with the children. If they miss their mothers, say, “Of course, you miss your mom.”
8. Remember, our job as teachers is to have the students like themselves, not us, until they know us, and that trust takes time.
9. The highs and lows of teaching come daily but the rewards are worth it.
10. Keep honing your craft through continuing education.

Part 2: Curriculum Basics

For preschoolers, Boyden prefers teaching simple motor movements like marching, skipping, walking on tiptoe, jumping, bowing, and hopping. “Seasons work well as themes. I like to follow their lives,” she says. “In the autumn we can talk about leaves; winter can be about building a snowman or skating; spring is flowers and butterflies; and summer can be a perfect day for a beach party.” Stories of a child’s life that follow various events, like birthdays and the progress of the day, can make a theme. You can also create a theme with qualities of motion, like levels, directions, and different ways of moving.

The first week
Boyden calls the first week “getting acquainted.” She has the children form a line outside the studio. Sometimes a tour of the whole studio—making sure to include the bathrooms—is in order. Learning names and just getting used to being away from Mom and in a new place are big changes for a child. (In Boyden’s classes parents can watch via a one-way mirror—having children see their parents is far too distracting.)

Sitting in a circle is a democratic way to begin. Attendance can be a lively time to let each child speak. Boyden has the children stand to talk and sit when they are done, at which point she assures them they’ve done a “good job.” This system automatically quiets a chatterbug.

Boyden likes to make a big deal of taking attendance. “They need to get to know me and each other. I use a very personal [approach to] attendance, which really shows how I value the students,” she says. “Don’t forget to look them in the eye when you say their name.”

In that first week, Boyden starts with movements the children already know, like clapping and marching. “Make them feel proud, smart, and successful,” she says. “You want to set a friendly atmosphere and make them comfortable with you and their new environment.” After attendance Boyden leads the group in sitting, stretching, and bending to touch their toes, ankles, and up the body to the head, saying, “Hello, toes,” and so on. Later in the semester she may introduce thighs and calves. “We start with just a few movements and build on them each week.”

Class structure
Classes begin and end the same way, with the middle as the place to introduce new material. Songs or poems with rhyming lyrics that they can memorize are introduced in weeks to follow. Singing and dancing a familiar nursery rhyme is a familiar scene in her class. “Keep the rhyme or song short”—no more than two to four lines—and remember that singing helps with memorization.

Each activity lasts about 10 minutes, but that can vary according to each group.

Props
You can introduce props at any time after the first week. “Children love scarves, and it’s a perfect time to learn about differences,” Boyden says, reminding her students that all colors are beautiful. “I like to teach life lessons,” she says. “They might not get the color they want, and that’s a perfect opportunity to teach a bit about disappointment. Let them make a sad face, snap their fingers, and move on.”

Boyden uses special props for the boys. They might get a blue scarf or use a boy doll. When they lead the parade they might be Superman. “I do make them part of the group and make them stand out, not stick out,” she says.

Sub-subhed: Working together
Subsequent classes will have children working in small groups or with a partner. Solo moving is reserved for later in the semester when confidence is up and shyness has disappeared. “I wait for about five weeks before I ask children to do anything by themselves,” she says. As the semester progresses, the children have built a repertoire of marching, skipping, hopping, and walking.

Content
Boyden reviews the previous week’s lesson before presenting new material. Over the course of the semester she covers a lot of ground in movement, music, and social skills. Topics include clapping to music; the identification of body parts; emotions like happiness, sadness, and surprise; and animal sounds and movements. Get the children used to strong action words like “bend,” “stretch,” “wiggle,” and “jump.” Toward the end of the semester they might even try dancing a story.

Boyden always ends class with a parade, with a new leader each time. “The parade is a perfect way to celebrate the end of class and their accomplishments. Sometimes we get adventurous and march through the lobby, but we always return to the studio.” On parent visiting days the moms and dads join in the parade.

Boyden teaches the children dance terminology and the basic positions of the feet using the simple idea of making your feet close and open like a book. “I teach proper terminology from the beginning, although we are not working on turnout,” she says. “We don’t learn technique, but I am setting the stage for the next level of training.”

Behavior
In handling behavior problems it’s important to give a child an out, Boyden says: “Sit them down, give them something to hold, and let them know they can join the group when they are ready.” She has various strategies to handle common learning disabilities like hyperactivity. “The mirror exercise works well, or having one child move another like in a clay-and-sculptor exercise. Slow, controlled movements really improve behavior.”

Boyden thinks it’s best to ignore children who crave constant attention. After a while they realize it’s not working and they join the group. “State your rules in the beginning and often throughout the semester and give lots of positive reinforcement. Include the manipulative children if they change their behavior.”

It might take a semester for the class to work cohesively as a group. “If there’s a serious class behavior problem, you need to sit everybody down,” says Boyden. “But never get angry. For a severely negative child you need to consider the safety of the other children.”

Boyden makes an appointment with a parent immediately when she feels there is a serious problem. “I may see things about their movement skills and their social behavior that they are missing.”

Age groups
Due to developmental differences Boyden prefers to have one class for 3-year olds and a second for 4- to 5-year-olds. That’s not always possible, though, and if you have a class of 3- to 5-year-olds, you need to make sure you are challenging the older students. The following basic characteristics and abilities of children ages 3 to 5 are important for teachers to know.

Three-year-olds follow simple directions, love to imitate, and are eager to please. Their attention span is short and they tire easily. It takes a lot of patience to teach this age group; this class might be their first time away from Mom and Dad. They can identify their body parts. Simple marching, jumping, tiptoe walking, and clapping are skills they enjoy. They may be bashful and have temperament issues.

Four-year-olds can jump, and their balance and other motor skills have improved. Their energy level is generally high and many need to be controlled. They can also get competitive with other children but enjoy social interactions. You can add skipping, twisting side to side, and even a simple chassé. They follow directions better and have more contact with the ground than they did a year ago. They tend to want to talk all the time as they are moving into their social skills. Shyness is less often an issue.

By age 5 coordination of all motor activities improves. Skipping and marching to music become easier. The children can count and are able to follow classroom decorum, such as taking turns and waiting in line. Their attention span is longer and they have better retention of the material. Start to prepare them for the next level by the end of the semester.

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