Montague Township School District
Dance Curriculum Guide
Grade 2
2025-2026
Melissa Neamand
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Description
This K-2 dance curriculum combines movement with other curriculum areas to support kinesthetic learners through experiential opportunities. Students experience music and art from different cultures, periods, and techniques while developing creative expression. Across the year, dance serves as a teaching tool that stimulates creativity, promotes critical thinking, and builds student confidence. The curriculum develops safe, efficient, and effective movement practices that establish a healthy, active lifestyle.
Big Ideas
- Engaging in safe, efficient and effective movement will develop and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.
- Dance elements can isolate or align body parts to create different patterns and express meaning.
- Cultural expression and artistic quality are reflected through different body movements and dance traditions across time and cultures.
Essential Questions
- How can the elements of dance be used to express content, emotions, and personal expression?
- How can improvisation of movement communicate content, emotions, and personal expression?
- How is dance different from other forms of movement?
- How is cultural expression represented in dance?
- What determines aesthetic quality?
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students determine central ideas and themes from texts and integrate content presented in diverse media formats. Students use informational and literary texts to support dance performances and create stories through multiple arts disciplines.
Students express individuality and cultural diversity through dance, learn about and respect other cultures, and describe how culture is expressed through the behavior and artistic choices of people.
Assessment occurs through formative and summative methods across each activity. Teachers use self-assessment to give students responsibility for evaluating their own learning and performance against rubrics and checklists. Peer critique uses structured protocols with frames like "I noticed," "I like the way because," and "Have you thought of?" Students demonstrate understanding through written or drawn work, video recordings of performances, planning documents that sketch choreographic ideas, and hand signals to indicate comprehension. A benchmark assessment at the end of each unit measures overall success. Homework, classwork, and exit materials serve as data sources for assessing progress.
| Unit | Formative | Summative | Benchmark | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01The Creative Process, Performance, and Aesthetic Responses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02History of the Arts and Culture, Performance, and Aesthetic Responses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Unit | IEP | 504 | MLL | At-Risk | Gifted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01The Creative Process, Performance, and Aesthetic Responses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02History of the Arts and Culture, Performance, and Aesthetic Responses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |