Tag Archives: camp

Our “Frozen-Inspired” Dance Camp: Activities & Games

Posted in Teachers by

This post is part of our “Frozen-Inspired” Dance Camp Series.

Activities / Creative Movement

Melting & Freezing

We explored the movement qualities of melting and freezing by pretending to be Olaf melting in the summer or freezing with Elsa’s help.  We melted for 16 slooooooow counts, and froze again for 16 then repeated in 8 counts, 4 counts, 2 and 1!  We melted with a friend, froze into different shapes or poses, started on one leg, etc.  Lots of variations to be had with this one!

More Melting Inspiration from Maria’s Movers Blog

Journey to Elsa’s Castle

We pretended to be Anna and Kristoff making their journey to or from Elsa’s castle.  We did this by playing Going on a Bear Hunt, but we changed the words to “We’re going on a journey, we’re gonna go get Elsa, I’m not scared, I’m not scared”.  For the next part (“we can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, I guess we’ll go… through it!”), we encountered :

  • Deep deep snow – big slow marches to lift our feet through the snow
  • A dark forest – tip toes
  • A cold frozen stream – skating
  • A big tall mountain – climbing actions
  • An icy staircase – careful climbing actions

Until we got to the castle and knocked on the door and found… MARSHMALLOW (the snow monster)!  Reverse all the actions as fast at you can to go back to Arrendale and climb into bed with the covers over our head.

Creative Movement based on Scenes or Characters from the Movie

We did a lot of creative movement / free dance, based on settings and characters from the movie.  We would first describe the scene / character, then talk about the movements the characters did (running, rolling, climbing, skating, etc) and then dance them using those movements.  Some of our favorite scenes:

Olaf In Summer – skipping, laying (sun-tanning), swaying, blowing dandelions, floating


Skating on Elsa’s pond – skating, twirling, sliding

Dancing like Marshmallow – “stompy”, angry, slow
They also enjoyed pretending to be at the coronation ball, dancing like the trolls, pretending to be a snow-swirl created by Elsa, and of course, being Elsa.


Games

In addition to the usual run of camp games (Freeze Dance, 4 corners, relay races, etc), we added a few or tailored them to better fit our theme:

Obstacle Course – We set up various obstacles around the room relating to the trip to Elsa’s castle.  We used cones to tip toe around like trees, a tunnel to go under, a gym mat to roll across, a “tightrope” (tape line on the floor) to walk on, ice puddles to jump over (little rugs)

Pin the Nose on Olaf – we had an Olaf-shaped posterboard and had the girls take turns being blind-folded and pinning their “nose” onto Olaf.  Since we had a large crew, we split them between three different groups so we could have three people going at the same time.

Our life-size Anna & Elsa was a
big hit for photos!

Red Light, Green Light, Frozen Variation – Basic Red light/Greenlight rules – in our version instead of being a redlight/greenlight, the “It” person is Elsa – and freezes people when she turns around.  We used the terms “WINTER” for STOP and “SUMMER” for GO.  If anyone was caught moving when the “It” person said WINTER, they had to go back to the starting line.  First person to touch the “It” person gets to be “It” for the next round.

One other thing that we used during the week was this Life-size Anna & Elsa – we found this great life-size cardboard cutout from Amazon.  They have other characters, but I really liked the two girls together.  We used them for a backdrop in our pictures and the kids loved “holding their hand” and just seeing them in general.
What other games / activities can be adapted to fit a “Frozen” theme?  Are you sick of the music yet?  Will you use it in your classes next season? Comment below!

Our “Frozen-Inspired” Dance Camp: Crafts

Posted in Pinspiration, Studio Life by

frozencamp craft

“Do You Wanna Dye a T-Shirt?” (sung in the melody of “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman”)

This is part of our “Frozen” (inspired) Dance Camp Series.

We spend about 30-40 minutes on crafts, but always have a back-up plan for those who lose interest fast (some of the 4 year olds are more interested in the process, than the final product) or who are very detailed (need to place every piece of grass just so).

Good ideas of back-up plans are coloring pages (link to free printable Frozen coloring pages) / activity sheets or clips from the movie, if you have a TV or screen.  I actually made a YouTube playlist of Frozen clips on our computer just in case, but we never had to use it.

Now… onto the crafts!

My Camp Director and I pulled a lot of the craft and activity ideas off of Pinterest, so I will try to credit our original inspiration when possible.

Continue reading →

Our “Frozen-Inspired” Dance Camp

Posted in Music, Studio Life, Teachers by
frozencampheader

 

Our most asked camp question since last December has been “Are you doing a Frozen Camp?”  So due to popular demand… a Frozen (inspired) Camp is what we did!

What works best for our studio is doing a half-day camp, where the students come 4 or 5 days a week from 9am-noon.

Each year we do a different theme and base the week’s lessons around that theme. We hold an impromptu little “show” on the last day of camp for family and friends.

We did the Frozen (inspired) Camp for our Princess age group (ages 4-7) at the end of June, and we actually had to close off registration a week prior because of the demand!  (For comparison, our July Princess Camp was half as full as the Frozen Camp was).

I’m going to break up the posts into a few different sections, and hopefully they will give you some ideas for your own camp.

1) Music (this post)
2) Crafts
3) Games & Activities 

General Camp Agenda

8:50-9:05am – Parent Drop-off and Student Sign-in
9:05-9:30am – Warm-up and “Get to know you” activities – I like doing the Name Game as an icebreaker
9:30-10:00am – Ballet Dance class (learning choreography / technique)
10:00-10:45am – Craft Time
10:45-11:00am – Snack Time
11:00-11:40am – Tap class (learning choreography / technique)
11:40-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down

Dance Camp Playlist

All links open in iTunes – the Dance Buzz is an iTunes affiliate

I know you will all be surprised when I tell you that the most used album during our Frozen-Inspired Camp was… the Frozen album. Shocking, I know! But we also used a few other non-Frozen songs during our camp so that we (the teachers) didn’t go crazy from having songs stuck our head all day!

Songs We Used for Choreography

Songs We Used in Class (for creative movement, games, and technique)

What non-Frozen songs can you think of that would fit in well?

Camp Tuition Calculator

Posted in Studio Life by

Holding a dance camp this summer and wondering what to charge?

Camp in a Can has a handy tuition calculator downloadable for free on their website (scroll to the bottom and click on the blue folder).

Updated:  The current version of the calculator is using 7 days for the week (most camps are 5 days…I sure as heck don’t want to work 7!!), so make sure you change the formula under Step 3 “Total Hours Per Week” to be multiplying by 5 or however many days your camp is.  If you’d rather not change formulas, then just input how many hours your camp is running per week in the grey box under Step 3.

Western Week Day #5: Our Show!

Posted in Studio Life by

Today’s the day – it’s show time down at the corral!

It’s Day #5 at Western Week Dance Camp and all the parents and friends are invited to our show.

Day #5 Agenda

8:50-9:00am – Parent Drop-off / Student Sign-in

9:00-9:20am – Warm-up

9:20-10:15am – Show Practice

10:15-10:30am – Craft: Show Programs / Picture Frames & Yarn Dolls

10:30-10:45am – Snack Time

10:45-11:00am – Practicing one last time!

11:15-11:30am – Getting into costume

11:45-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down – Relay Race!

Day #5 Crafts: Yarn Dolls & Programs / Picture Frames

For the Yarn Dolls, you will need:

– Lots and lots of yarn
– Scissors
– Something to wrap the yarn around – we used CD cases, but stiff cardboard would work just as well

Here is a great post with many pictures that explains how to make a yarn girl or boy.  The only difference we had was that we used contrasting yarn for all of the tying off.

That’s a lot of yarn!

Continue reading →

Western Week Day #4: Cowgirl Vests!

Posted in Studio Life by

It’s Day #4 at Western Week Dance Camp!  Today we are working on practicing our “show” and making costumes.

Day #4 Agenda

8:50-9:00am – Parent Drop-off / Student Sign-in

9:00-9:30am – Warm-up

9:30-10:00am – Jazz Dance class – practicing our dances in sequence

10:00-10:45am – Craft – Cowgirl Vests & Foot Print Horses

10:45-11:00am – Snack Time

11:00-11:45am – Tap Class – practicing our dances in sequence

11:45-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down – Relay Race!

Day #4 Crafts: Cowgirl Vests & Foot Print Horses

For the Vests, you will need:

– Large paper bags
– Ribbons
– Scissors
– Crayons, paint, markers – whatever you want to decorate with (we used crayons)
– Tin foil & large-eyed needle
Prep Work for today’s craft: Cutting out the arm and neck holes for each vest, laying out all the “decorations”.We followed these instructions from Crayola’s website.  Everyone got to decorate their own vest with as much ribbon and coloring as they chose.  Some girls made “fringe” at the bottom with scissors (you could also tear it if you have little ones).

Picking out just the right colors for her vest!
Having fun coloring on the vests
The hardest part was the tin foil “badges” or “rosettes” – to get them to stay on, a teacher needed to help  poke the ribbon through the vest with a large needle.  The kids were able to thread the needle, but it was too hard to push through without an adult’s help.
Our vests waiting for the show tomorrow…

For the Foot Print Horses craft, you will need:

– Multiple colors of construction paper

– Yarn

– Glue

– Googly eyes (optional)

– Crayons or markers

We enjoyed this one because we also learned our “Bullseye the Horse” tap dance that day (song from Toy Story).

Instructions can be found at Busy Bee Crafts. The basic idea is that you trace your foot print onto a piece of construction paper and that becomes the horse’s head.  You add it to a long triangle piece, two little triangles for ears, add yarn for a mane and you’ve got a horse!

The girls had a blast tracing their feet – it produced lots of giggles!  They were able to cut out their foot tracing easily and paste it on.  We had a pre-assemble horsey so that they could figure out what piece went where.

This horse is galloping right off the paper!  She’s a fast one 🙂

Some of the girls opted to draw a face on their horse.

A happy horsey
Another beautiful horse – this one with some eyelashes!

We left everything to dry overnight and we were very excited because tomorrow is the show!


Get along little doggie – see ya tomorrow!

Western Week Day #3: Into the Sunset

Posted in Studio Life by

For Day #3 of our Western Week Dance Camp we are learning more new dance steps and finishing up our sunsets!

Day #3 Agenda

8:50-9:00am – Parent Drop-off / Student Sign-in
9:00-9:30am – Warm-up – we made Negative Space Statues
9:30-10:00am – Jazz Dance class – adding on to our dances
10:00-10:45am – Craft –
10:45-11:00am – Snack Time
11:00-11:45am – Tap Class – reviewing yesterday’s dance
11:45-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down – we made an obstacle course

Day #3 Crafts: Cowboy Sunsets (Part 2) & Bead Pins

Part Two of Cowboy Sunsets:

Yesterday we made the “sunset” portion of the craft and had to let the coffee filters dry overnight.

Adding dye to the coffee filters

Prep Work for today’s craft: Cutting out the rims of paper plates

Today we will make and decorate the frames.  Here is our set-up for today’s portion of the craft:

Continue reading →

Western Week Day #2: Cowgirls!

Posted in Studio Life by

For Day #2 of our Western Week Dance Camp we are learning more new dance steps and making cowgirl neckerchiefs!

Day #2 Agenda

8:50-9:00am – Parent Drop-off / Student Sign-in
9:00-9:30am – Warm-up – we went on a “Bear Hunt”
9:30-10:00am – Jazz Dance class – adding on to our dance
10:00-10:45am – Craft – Neckerchiefs and Cowboy Sunsets
10:45-11:00am – Snack Time
11:00-11:45am – Tap Class – reviewing yesterday’s dance
11:45-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down – we made an obstacle course

Day #2 Crafts: Cowgirl Neckerchiefs & Cowboy Sunsets

For the Neckerchiefs, You Will Need:

– Fabric cut into large squares (big enough to fold in half)
– Fabric Paint
– Paintbrushes
– Optional: rubber fabric stamps
Prep work:  My Camp Director cut out the fabric squares ahead of time and we made a painter’s palette for each group of two.  

We have a collection of rubber stamps that grows each year–most popular are the letter stamps and flowers. Some of the campers preferred to stamp and other drew designs and scenes.

Whichever they chose, they all turned out beautiful and the kids were excited to wear them for the show!

Continue reading →

Western Week Day #1: Tie-Dye

Posted in Studio Life by

Our studio offers two types of camp: 5-day “Dance Camp” for ages 6-10 and 4-day “Princess Camp” for ages 4-6.

For both camps, the students come each day for three hours from 9am – noon and we dance and do arts and crafts.

Each year we do a different theme and base the week’s lessons around that theme. We hold an impromptu little “show” on the last day of camp for family and friends.

This year, the older kids’ camp theme was “Western / Cowgirls / Hoe Down”, which my camp director had a blast planning and I enjoyed doing!  I wanted to share our week with you and hopefully it will give you some ideas for your camp or even just some fun crafts to do at home this summer!  Psst – if you’re looking for another camp idea – check out last year’s “Rock Star” Camp.

Day #1 Agenda

8:50-9:00am – Parent Drop-off & Student Sign-in
9:00-9:30am – Warm-up & “Get to know you” activities – I like doing the Name Game as an icebreaker
9:30-10:00am – Jazz Dance class – we learn our first group dance
10:00-10:45am – Craft – Tie-dye
10:45-11:00am – Snack Time
11:00-11:45am – Tap Class – we learn our first tap dance
11:45-12:00pm – Games / Cool-down

Day #1 Craft: Tie-Dye

You Will Need:
– T-Shirts
– Fabric Dye 
– Buckets
– Rubberbands

The first day of all of our camps we traditionally do tie-dye, as the shirts take some time to dry and we sometimes use the tie-dyed shirts in later projects.  This year was no different and we took to the sidewalk outside our school to tie-dye.

Before heading outside, we wrapped our shirts with rubber bands.  Depending on the age of your kids, you can get pretty creative.  Our campers favored the Spiral, Stripes and Dots techniques.

We are fortunate to have a spigot in the front of our building, so we use that to fill up a bunch of tubs mixed with tie-dye and place them on the sidewalk and let the kids have at it.  We had a small group this time, so we let them all go at once, but if you have a larger group, you might have to break it up.

Wearing our T-shirts for the show!

Tip:  The younger children always want to dip their shirts in Every Single Bucket because… well, its just fun to dip in the buckets!  If you use dark colors, their shirts will end up a not-so-pretty brown color.  We try to get colors that are light and will mix well if layered (yellow, pink, purple, orange).  

More tips from last year.

After they have dyed to their heart’s content, one of the teachers washes the T-shirt under the cold water  until no more dye runs out and then the kids hang them up to dry (we use a portable ballet barre on the sidewalk).

Day #1 Playlist

Western Week at Dance Camp

Posted in Music, Studio Life by

We just finished up a week of Dance Camp and we had a blast!  Our theme was “Out West” and we had a lot of fun coming up with different crafts to keep ourselves occupied.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it next week but in the meantime, I’ll share our playlist for the show:

Western / Hoe-Down Theme (ages 6-9)

Our tap songs:

Our jazz songs:

Have a great weekend!