3 simple ways add Thanksgiving feels to your dance classes

It's no secret -- I love a theme for my dance classes. I love to incorporate the students' outside experiences into dance class, when I can.

The season of autumn -- easy! It's so fun to dance about falling leaves and apple picking. Halloween? No bones about it -- there's tons of Halloween songs and characters to use.

But Thanksgiving proves a bit trickier. Feeling grateful, thankful, and showing appreciation can be harder to wrap into a preschool dance combo, as the young dancers do not always have a full understanding yet of these complex emotions.
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But food? Yep, I think they know something about Thanksgiving Dinner! The strategy that has worked best for me is using imagery from our favorite Thanksgiving foods (mine are mashed potatoes & pumpkin pie!) to create the dance lesson plan.
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Want the EXACT Thanksgiving theme combos work for my dancers?  Check out my Thanksgiving Dinner Dance for ages 4-6 and Little Turkeys from toddlers and ages 2-3, at the end of this post!​

For my older dancers, Thanksgiving is a fun time for me to challenge them to tap into the emotional, artistic side of dance and push their creativity. I find that guided choreography exercises do this best, with the added bonus of creating opportunities for teamwork and for applying their technical skills.

The Choreography Cornucopia game, with 4 sets of choreography cards plus worksheets, is inspired by ideas of gratitude and feeling thankful -- and it can be played any time of year!

As a THANK YOU TO YOU for being a part of my dance teacher community, I wanted to share a free downloadable and printable worksheet that you can use with your students, any time of year, to help fill their cup!

You certainly fill mine! :)  Happy Thanksgiving!​​

Little Turkeys Thanksgiving Dance Combos

Thanksgiving Dinner Dance

Choreography Cornucopia Game

FREE PRINTABLE Gratitude Worksheet for Students!