Comments on: Why And How To Teach Anatomy Concepts To Children http://danceadvantage.net/2010/06/28/anatomy-for-children/ Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:08:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Meg http://danceadvantage.net/2010/06/28/anatomy-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-2545 Meg Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:27:24 +0000 http://danceadvantage.net/?p=6400#comment-2545 Lovely connections! My brain's on vacation tonight, but it's always a pleasure to read about great ideas! Thanks, Stacey! Lovely connections! My brain’s on vacation tonight, but it’s always a pleasure to read about great ideas! Thanks, Stacey!

]]> By: Maria Hanley http://danceadvantage.net/2010/06/28/anatomy-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-2527 Maria Hanley Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:24:56 +0000 http://danceadvantage.net/?p=6400#comment-2527 Stacey! I do the telephone calling different body parts too! They love it and and call me "silly Miss Maria" haha I think I do need to incorporate more anatomy into my young classes. After all that's where it all begins and they are really learning what their body is all about. 45 min is so not enough time to get everything in! Jeepers! This is important though, so off I go to revise my 3 year ballet class for tomorrow to include more talk about muscles and bones! Thanks for the post! :) Stacey! I do the telephone calling different body parts too! They love it and and call me “silly Miss Maria” haha I think I do need to incorporate more anatomy into my young classes. After all that’s where it all begins and they are really learning what their body is all about. 45 min is so not enough time to get everything in! Jeepers! This is important though, so off I go to revise my 3 year ballet class for tomorrow to include more talk about muscles and bones! Thanks for the post! :)

]]> By: Stacey http://danceadvantage.net/2010/06/28/anatomy-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-2525 Stacey Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:29:38 +0000 http://danceadvantage.net/?p=6400#comment-2525 Hi Lauren, Yes, the brain is ultimately the boss! I like to tell my classes that the brain tells the body what to do. I give them this exercise as an example: - balance on one foot. I watch as at least one child will get silly, wiggle, flail and utlimately in dramatic fashion crash to the floor. - Next I tell the class to use the power of their brains. The brain tells the body what to do. If they don't want to fall down and they feel they are losing their balance, their brain will tell their body to put the other foot down. Trust in your body- and brain is apart of your body. -Then I watch the magic happen. It is beautiful. The children become focused, and I can see them developing an understanding of their mind-body connection. I don't think it is ever to early to have kids connect the mind and body. For this post, I wanted to focus on mechanics (the purpose of the muscles, lungs,etc.) but taking it a step futher can only enhance the experience. Why not teach the purpose of the nerve impulse?! The brain sends the impulse to the muscle with the message "the arm wants to move now" and the muscle receives the message and completes the task. I bet kids would love the image of a telephone. The brain is ringing the muscle, the muscle answers! You could even bring in a play "brain" telephone and call up different muscles and have the kids answer the telephone by moving their different body parts. I am ringing your knees. Hello knees, are you there - and then the kids could move their knees, etc. Thank you for your comments Lauren! Most appreciated. Any other ideas out there about how to incorporate teaching anatomy to young children?? Hi Lauren,
Yes, the brain is ultimately the boss! I like to tell my classes that the brain tells the body what to do. I give them this exercise as an example:

- balance on one foot.

I watch as at least one child will get silly, wiggle, flail and utlimately in dramatic fashion crash to the floor.

- Next I tell the class to use the power of their brains. The brain tells the body what to do. If they don’t want to fall down and they feel they are losing their balance, their brain will tell their body to put the other foot down. Trust in your body- and brain is apart of your body.

-Then I watch the magic happen.

It is beautiful. The children become focused, and I can see them developing an understanding of their mind-body connection. I don’t think it is ever to early to have kids connect the mind and body.

For this post, I wanted to focus on mechanics (the purpose of the muscles, lungs,etc.) but taking it a step futher can only enhance the experience. Why not teach the purpose of the nerve impulse?! The brain sends the impulse to the muscle with the message “the arm wants to move now” and the muscle receives the message and completes the task.

I bet kids would love the image of a telephone. The brain is ringing the muscle, the muscle answers! You could even bring in a play “brain” telephone and call up different muscles and have the kids answer the telephone by moving their different body parts.

I am ringing your knees. Hello knees, are you there – and then the kids could move their knees, etc.

Thank you for your comments Lauren! Most appreciated.

Any other ideas out there about how to incorporate teaching anatomy to young children??

]]> By: Lauren http://danceadvantage.net/2010/06/28/anatomy-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-2524 Lauren Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:38:50 +0000 http://danceadvantage.net/?p=6400#comment-2524 Stacey, This is great! I didn't really understand anything about anatomy until college, and I love the idea that with young kids we aren't just teaching them what is what, but HOW THINGS WORK... touching on both anatomy AND physiology. I'd love to hear your ideas on the brain-body connection... that it's not exactly the muscles moving your bones but an impulse from the brain telling the muscles to contract, which provides enough mechanical energy to move the bones. Maybe young kids don't need to know that, but I wonder how it might change our perceptions on movement, "muscle memory", practice, etc. Thanks for your post! Lauren Stacey,
This is great! I didn’t really understand anything about anatomy until college, and I love the idea that with young kids we aren’t just teaching them what is what, but HOW THINGS WORK… touching on both anatomy AND physiology.

I’d love to hear your ideas on the brain-body connection… that it’s not exactly the muscles moving your bones but an impulse from the brain telling the muscles to contract, which provides enough mechanical energy to move the bones. Maybe young kids don’t need to know that, but I wonder how it might change our perceptions on movement, “muscle memory”, practice, etc.

Thanks for your post!
Lauren

]]>