Preschool Dance Movement Cards

Preschool Dance Movement Cards are a fabulous addition to your Preschool Dance classes.  There are so many different ways you can use them and they are a great, low-cost way to add a touch of seasonal flavor to your classes. Depending on how you use them, you may like to print out your movement cards and laminate them or you can even just use them on your phone or Ipad.  This is great, as it means you always have an extra trick up your sleeve.

Preschool Dance Movement Cards – how to use.

1. Guess the card – this activity is always a HUGE hit with my classes.  Start by looking at each of the cards you will be using and practicing the movement as you go. If you are doing a themed class, this is a great time to reinforce your theme.  Then, turn the cards over, ‘shut your eyes’ and draw a card showing it to the class.  When you open your eyes, you have to guess what the movement is. Guaranteed Giggles Galore!
2. Simon Says – Using the cards as a twist on Simon Says is great for a little brain break activity
3. Freeze Game – yes there is more to Preschool Dance than then Freeze Game but it IS very versatile. Using your Preschool Dance Movement Cards as part of the Freeze Game is a fantastic way to bring your theme into your lesson plan.
4. Dance sequences – Lay the cards out in a specific order and each time you clap it is time to swap to a different movement.  For your older classes experiment with turning the cards over after you have examined them and see how many movements the class can remember.  Keep in mind that in Preschool working memory is limited so give lots of clues and keep it fun.
5. Make a circuit – Lay the cards out in a circuit like the one shown below. Vary the locomotion and perform the movement on the card as you reach each station.

Preschool Dance Movement Cards are a great way to add some variety to your Preschool Dance classes.  They are a wonderful way to incorporate themes into your classes and to reinforce concepts.  To download your free Spring and Fall-themed Preschool Dance Movement Cards just enter your email below.

These Preschool Dance Movement Cards are based on the bestselling downloadable Preschool Ballet Curriculum – the Preschool Ballet Blueprint.  The Blueprint saves you hours upon hours of work giving you a click-and-go guide of what to teach when and how. Trusted by studios worldwide, the Preschool Ballet Blueprint gives you the confidence that their first steps in dance will be the right ones.

Pre-Ballet lesson plan – free download

I was chatting with one of my former students Sarah, the other day and she was telling me that she had just been employed to teach Pre-Ballet classes.  Sympathetically, I listened as she told me a now-familiar tale.  Sarah told me how excited she had been for the first class and how much planning and preparation she had done and then…. how TERRIBLY the whole thing had gone.  She had experienced the whole enchilada, crying children, children running wildly around the room, the tiny dancers not being able to follow what Sarah was trying to teach them…she was frazzled, upset and had no idea what to do! My student Sarah is a beautiful dancer and had assisted me for many years with school-aged classes.  BUT as any Pre-Ballet teacher will tell you, Preschool dance classes are a WHOLE different kettle of fish.  It can at times seem like it has more in common with herding kittens than teaching dance.

How can a Pre-Ballet lesson plan help?

Sure it can be hectic but, it absolutely doesn’t have to be that way.  With a well-designed Pre-Ballet lesson plan, everything is possible. I sent Sarah a link to the Preschool Ballet Blueprint along with a copy of the Mini Pre-Ballet lesson plan available to download below. Wishing her luck, I told her I’d give her a call after her next class.  The Sarah I spoke to that next week was thrilled and excited at how well it had all gone.  Give a girl the right Pre-Ballet lesson plan and she can conquer the world!   A solid Pre-Ballet lesson plan, showing what to teach, and most importantly how to teach is a game changer!

Pre-Ballet – the fundamentals

Teaching Pre-Ballet is totally different from teaching school-age classes, but there are some fundamentals.  These are absolutely KEY to ensuring that your Pre-Ballet classes are not only calm, organized, and enjoyable but also pedagogically sound.  Simple things such as:

• Studio organisation
• How students enter the room
• The use of place markers
• How to implement class phases
• Which props to use
• What to teach, when, and how.

These are the hallmarks of an effective Pre-Ballet lesson plan. To get started, try out his min Pre-Ballet class plan which is designed as a basic first class and will give you a good overview of how to structure your class.  If you are ready you can check out the full Preschool Ballet Blueprint over here.

You may also like these Pre-Ballet articles

5 tools every Preschool Dance Teacher Needs

5 tips for a successful Preschool Ballet Class

Please enjoy this free Mother’s Day Coloring sheet to enjoy with your young dancers.  Just enter your email below

If you are looking for more activities for your Preschool and School-aged dancers check out some of our activity packs below

Who else wants a done for you Preschool Easter Dance class plan?

Easter is nearly here and time is running out to design and advertise special Easter-themed classes.  Relax!  That’s where our click and go class plans and activity packs come in.  Just take a few moments to download and you are good to go. The Preschool Easter Dance Class Plan includes playlist, coloring and activity sheets, fully choreographed exercises plus circuits, games, and activities.  All you have to do is download and teach.  These tried and tested class plans are based on the bestselling Preschool Ballet Blueprint, the downloadable Preschool curriculum that is currently being used worldwide to deliver super popular preschool Programs. 

The Preschool Easter Dance Class Plan includes a range of sequenced exercises from warm-up through stretching, basic ballet steps, and locomotion exercises all with a fun Easter theme.  Take your students on a fun-filled adventure where they will go on an Easter egg hunt, take part in an Easter Hat parade, experiment with rhythms, levels, speeds, directions, and work on fine and gross motor skills, jumping, hopping, skipping.  Watch them hop like a bunny, roll like an egg and pose like a flower.

The Preschool Easter Dance Class Plan takes care of marketing with a selection of social media graphics done for you plus an informative flyer that you can send to parents.  This not only helps cement the concepts covered in class but also builds parental engagement and trust.  Parents who love your program will spread the word! After the class give your students the coloring pages and activity sheets to further enhance their experience.  You can post samples of their work during the week or hang them up around the studio. Join the thousands of schools already enjoying these affordable and easy-to-use class plans designed in conjunction with qualified ballet teachers and childhood development professionals. 

This dance class plan is part of the Ballet Blueprint series, designed to give you the skills and knowledge to deliver a quality, pedagogically sound Preschool Dance program without huge outlays.  Regular preschool teachers don’t reinvent the wheel every time they step into a class.  They have set class plans that are well structured and predictable.  The Ballet Blueprint series is based on this concept and has been tried, tested, and tweaked so you can deliver your Preschool dance classes without chaos or stress.

Move beyond follow-along action songs and the freeze game to a curriculum that follows childhood development principles, is age-appropriate and is designed so that their first steps are the right ones.  You can learn more about the Blueprint series here and grab your Preschool Easter Dance Class Plan right here.

Unicorn Preschool Ballet class plan

Is there a Preschool Ballet student not obsessed with Unicorns? Unicorns are the Zeitgeist of our time but Unicorn themed songs for Preschoolers are a little harder to come by.  Never fear your Unicorn Preschool Ballet class plan is here! And if you teach 5-6-year-olds there is a version for them too.  This Unicorn Preschool Ballet class plan is based on the Ballet Blueprint series, the best-selling downloadable ballet curriculum which is currently used worldwide as a best practice pre-ballet curriculum.  It has been designed, tested, and tweaked so that you can download and hit the dance floor running.  Created with a firm foundation in fostering correct ballet technique around childhood development principles you can be confident that your Preschool program is pedagogically sound and that students will graduate primed to move into formal ballet training.  Studios rise and fall on their Preschool program and tapping into this revenue stream puts your studio on strong foundations.  However, finding a Preschool program that ticks all the boxes, that can be used by multiple instructors but which doesn’t cost a bomb or require expensive membership fees can be challenging.  The Ballet Blueprint series is tried and tested and a simple no-fuss option to build a quality Preschool Dance program that you can be proud of and rely on to actually prepare your youngest dancers for their formal training. If you want a class of superstar minis you need to get started early.

Vivian Brent  (Encore Performing Arts) – I was badly burned by a big name Preschool franchise.  I wish I’d just purchased this to start with.  It has everything I need.  I can provide each of my instructors with a copy and I can be confident  that my Preschool program will be well organised, uniform and something that the children really enjoy and benefit from.

Like all the Resources for Dance Teachers mini-class plans, the Unicorn Preschool Ballet class plan comes with a playlist, fully choreographed exercises that focus on fine and gross motor skill development, directions, levels, speed, and bucketloads of imaginative play.  The class plan also comes with a coloring page.  As a special bonus, there is also a Beginners Ballet version for your younger students aged 5-7.

You can learn more about the Ballet Blueprint series here and find more mini-class plans here and a whole range of fabulous coloring pages and ballet activities here.

To download your free Unicorn Preschool Ballet class plan with a bonus 5-7-year-old version just enter your email below.

St Patricks’ Day Preschool dance class plan

No more scrambling to find last-minute activities for St Patrick’s day – your pot of gold is right here!   Simply download and enjoy this free St Patrick’s Day Preschool Dance class plan complete with playlist, fully choreographed exercises, activities, place markers, and boy and girl St Patrick’s Day coloring pages.  This mini-class plan has everything you need to provide a fun St Patrick’s day themed dance class.  The exercises focus on levels, speed, tempo, sequencing, fine and gross motor skills, and bucket loads of FUN.  This Preschool Dance class plan is based on the best-selling downloadable ballet curriculum, the Ballet Blueprint series which takes you from Mommy & Me through Preschool and onto Beginners Ballet.  The  Blueprint is currently being used worldwide to deliver quality ballet instruction.  With extensive playlists,  clear class phases, and a fully choreographed syllabus, the Blueprint gives you everything you need to download and go.  It has been designed and tested to be pedagogically sound and works around milestones of childhood development so you can be assured that your program will enhance cognitive, physical, and social development.  The Blueprint also offers comprehensive strategies for behavioral expectations giving you the tools to deal with everything from separation anxiety to fostering a love of dance.  We all know how difficult it is to undo bad early training and with a focus on developing strong technique, the Blueprint ensures their first steps are the right ones.  Students trained wth the Blueprint commence formal training 18 months years ahead of their peers and it is an advantage that continues right through their training.   You can find out more about the Blueprint here.

The Blueprint has revolutionized my studio.  I finally have a well organised and popular Preschool Program that feeds seamlessly into my school aged program.  The difference in my junior school is amazing and I’m excited to see this new generation of students progress through the studio.  -Annie Moore (Ballet Director, Starz Academy)

To download your free St Patrick’s Day Preschool dance class plan, just enter your email below.

If you are looking for more resources for dance teaching, check out our Ballet Activity packs, Ballet Theory packs and Growth Mindset resources.

Halloween Preschool Dance class plan & coloring pages

Halloween is such a fun time for dance class – so many great spooky songs to use and all sorts of great dance activities to enjoy.  Make sure you are all set for your Halloween Preschool Dance classes with the mini class plan which focuses on fine and gross motor skills, directions, sequencing, levels, tempo, and of course, imaginative play.  And as a special treat please also enjoy these Halloween Dance coloring pages.

This Halloween Preschool Dance class plan is based on the Preschool Ballet Blueprint, a downloadable class plan currently being used worldwide to deliver fun, popular, well-organized Preschool dance programs. You can learn more about the Blueprint here and grab the full range of Seasonal Preschool Ballet coloring pages for girls and boys here. In the meantime, grab your free downloadable Halloween Preschool Dance Class plan and coloring page by entering your email below.

Covid Safe Dance coloring pages

Help your students feel comfortable with new studio rules with these free Covid Safe Dance coloring pages featuring boy and girl dancers with face masks.  The pages, promote handwashing and good hygiene in the studio.  These pages are free and you can download them by entering your email below. Once downloaded you can print them out as many times as you would like or share them online.  For those on Zoom, you can find Welcome back to Zoom coloring pages here.

You can find the full range of coloring pages for ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop over in the Resources for Dance Teachers store. These coloring pages are based on the Ballet Blueprint series – a downloadable curriculum which takes dancers from their first steps as a Preschooler through to their first year of formal training. if you want a class of superstar minis then you need to start early and the Blueprint system of training allows you to do this.  With the Blueprint, you can rest assured that you are providing a quality ballet program for your youngest students which will fully prepare them for their formal dance training.  Students trained with the Blueprint start their formal ballet lessons 12-18 months ahead of their peers and it’s an advantage that stays with them, so the rewards for your studio just keep coming as they progress.

To download your Covid Safe Dance coloring pages enter your email below.

Welcome back to dance coloring page

Please enjoy these free welcome back to dance coloring pages.  As some of us will be returning to in person learning and some returning via Zoom, there are  Zoom and non-Zoom boy and girl pages. With restrictions on handing things out in class, you may find it preferable to email the sheets before the first class or just provide the google drive link for your parents to download the sheets as they please.  These are a lovely way to scaffold the return to dance and are always a hit with Preschoolers young school aged dancers.  Just enter your email below to download these free back to dance colouring pages.

These colouring pages are part of the Preschool Ballet Blueprint, the bestselling Preschool ballet curriculum that actually prepares Preschool aged students for formal ballet training. The Blueprint is your guide to providing a quality, well organised and popular Preschool Ballet program.  The Blueprint has been tried and tested over many years and comes complete with fully choreographed syllabus, playlist, guide to promoting good behaviour as well as common faults and how to fix them.  You can learn more about the Preschool Ballet Blueprint here and find a full range of colouring and activity sheets here.

Free Preschool Dance class plan – Under the Sea

Please enjoy the latest Resources for Dance Teacher free Mini Preschool Dance class plan.  This downloadable under the sea themed class plan is designed for dancers aged 3-5 and includes a Playlist, choreographed exercises, circuit, colouring page and a range of exercises and activities designed to inspire creativity while developing fine and gross motor skills.  The exercises incorporate levels, sequencing, directions, speeds and work on a range of developmental, age appropriate skills,  Take your dancers on a imagination fuelled under the sea journey where they will dance like crabs, splash in the water swim with fish and frolic with the mermaids.  Everything is done for you so you don’t have to worry.  The playlist contains the songs in the mini class plan as well as a range of other under the sea themed songs and is easy to follow, tried and tested.  It is based on the bestselling Preschool Ballet Blueprint – the downloadable ballet curriculum especially for Preschoolers.  This proven curriculum provides you with all the tools to deliver quality Preschool Ballet Instruction that will actually prepare your tiny dancers for their formal dance training.  If you want a class of super star minis you need to get started early and the Blueprint helps you do that.  Students trained with the Blueprint, hit the ground running and commence their formal training 6-12 months ahead of their peers.  And the best part – it is an advantage that stays with them!  

You can download your fee Mini class plan by entering your email below.

If you would like to learn more about the Preschool Ballet Blueprint click here and for more seasonal and themed free class plans, please click here.