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Teacher's
Review - Jenny Dixon, Solway Primary School,
Victoria
About 12 years ago a tape landed on my desk, from persons
unknown, with a suggestion that I should try it. It was
called, "Dance like A Kangaroo". Once used, it became my
'faithful companion' and is always in my bag ready to fill a
gap in the day where the class could sing and dance. The
original copy was actually wearing thin and has had some
close calls with breakages and panic stricken mends so I was
ecstatic to find that it is now available on a CD. Perhaps
slightly stronger than the original tape and certainly
newer!
"Dance like A Kangaroo" - a fantastic introduction to
dancing for lower primary students. I can simply start at
the beginning and let the tape roll through. Even grade six
students have requested 'Itty, Bitty, Baby' (to my stunned
surprise) more than once and then they actually dance and
sing with it!
I have used 'Travelling Around Australia' in
conjunction with the story of 'Possum Magic' and learning
about the states and capital cities. 'Twist Yourself
Up' is another favourite of the younger classes as they
try to reach and hold various parts of the body and keep
their balance. I don't quite know who laughs more, the
teacher at the twisted shapes and students falling over or
the students laughing at their teacher trying, in vain, to
reach long distant toes and back whilst holding onto the
elbow, the nose, the left hip the … and often falling
over! 'Walking to the Left' gives all the students an
easy introduction to basic folk dance movements and beats.
After this they find it quite easy to understand how folk
dances can be built using set actions. They can gradually
build their own movements into the music to form their own
folk dances based on the simple movements from 'Dance like A
Kangaroo'.
I have used this tape from Prep to Grade 6 over the last
12 years and I still enjoy listening, dancing and singing
with it and I have not found a class yet who do not enjoy
dancing and singing with it as well. So simple and so much
fun! ! I think that my most favourite track is the title
track, 'Dance Just like A Kangaroo'. For the Prep to 2 area
the music just makes all the students get up to dance and
sing. I think that I have used this tape every year whether
teaching a class or teaching as a music specialist and I can
always rely on it being an instant success, even if the
students used it the year before and the year before and
… I don't think that I have ever found such a
useful and universal tape that can provide so much
entertainment from Prep to Grade 6.
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