Week 2 -- Mission Creek

This week we talked about Mission Creek and how it used to run through the Mission. I made a gestural phrase based on the map that's included in the mural going up on the play yard wall and taught it to all three grades. I was surprised how well they all picked it up and how focused they were while learning it. Even kids who can't contain themselves when we're working on larger movement were super still and attentive.

We also made phrases with the 3rd and 4th graders based on jumping over, into and around the water that used to run through the neighborhood. These were AMAZING. I had one boy in 3rd grade who could have choreographed the whole section for me, he was bursting with so many ideas. The kids are getting the hang of generating and linking movement more and retained what we did the previous week really well.

I tried teaching a set jumping pattern to the 5th graders but it created too much chaos. Since we see all 40 or so of them at once, any large group activities become much harder to manage. Won't be doing that again. This week I'll only work that material with them in their smaller groups.

I'm still not sure we'll get to show all the sections linked together. The scheduling is very complicated -- it has to work with when the yard is available and all 6 classes' schedules. But I've decided even if they are only shown individually that we'll construct the sequences based on the chronology of the history we're drawing from. So we'll start with the water, which feels perfect.