Activate! LF-6

Building dance literacy with fun brain breaks

Activate! is a series of easy-to-use flash cards that introduce dance literacy as part of fun and energising brain breaks in the classroom.

This digital and physical resource was created by our Director of Education and Life Long Learning, Dr Katrina Rank, and gives primary school students easy access to quality dance experiences. Activate! encourages students to embrace dance while enjoying fun, purposeful, physical activity in the classroom. The exercises are aligned with the Victorian Curriculum F-10: The Arts (Dance).

Teachers can easily incorporate Activate! into the classroom during transition times or to help re-focus students mid-task. Each flash card features a different, easy-to-learn dance activity that takes 5-10 minutes to complete and is linked to video resources via a QR code.

The best part? No performing arts experience required of students or teachers!

Why do we need brain breaks?

Let’s face it, concentrating for a full day in school can be pretty tiring for most kids. Brain breaks or movement breaks are short bursts of physical activity that help students re-group and re-focus by boosting circulation and oxygen in the body. This can improve attention, increase self-regulation, and have a positive impact on overall learning.

What’s included?

The Activate! resource includes four sets of physical flash cards aimed at different year levels

• Foundation
• Level 1-2
• Level 3-4
• Level 5-6

While these cards work as a stand-alone activity, Activate! also offers teachers a wonderful education resource designed to accommodate different learning styles and offering extension activities.

Each card features a QR code which connects to a vast video library of instructions, warm-up routines, longer dance sequences and ideas for extra challenges. The sets also include detailed lesson plans and instructions written by our Director of Education and Life Long Learning.