Pete Hillier has the first of three exciting dance sessions exploring the Great Fire of 1666.
1. The Fire begins in Pudding Lane
Pete Hillier has the first of three dance sessions about the Great Fire of London of 1666. In this session the children find out how the Fire started in a small street called Pudding Lane.
Resources
Download the audio for this dance session as an mp3 file.
Guidance on using the dance sessions in this unit with your group (pdf)
Lesson summary:
Warm up: Walk! Skip! Jog! Exploring medieval London鈥檚 maze-like streets and alleyways.
Sequence 1: The busy bakery. Performing hot, busy baking actions: stirring the ingredients together; punching downwards to knead and pound the bread dough; carrying the heavy tray of bread, pies and cakes to the clay oven to bake.
Sequence 2: The Fire begins. Curled up small, the music cues small flickering flame movements of fingers and hands. As the music builds, the children gradually stand up and their flickering flame movements get bigger and stronger. They stretch their flickering flame fingers high, low and all around as they walk, skip and then jog through the spaces.
Sequence 3: Water-pump fire engine. In fire-fighting teams of two, partners stand opposite one another to perform rhythmic 鈥榮ee-saw鈥 water-pumping action - so as one person pushes one end of the pump handle down, their partner lifts the other end up. Per- formed slowly at first, then faster, and finally slowly again. Performed to the traditional nursery rhyme:
London鈥檚 burning! London鈥檚 burning!
Call the engines! Call the engines!
Fire, fire! Fire, fire!
Pour on water! Pour on water!
Cool down. Quick, small steps, twisting and turning to escape along the narrow lanes and alleyways of medieval London. Then, walk to a space with slow, tired steps. Sit down on the floor, close eyes, breathe deeply and relax.
More units from KS1 Dance: Time to Move
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. collection
A three-part unit based on the traditional story, popularised by the poem by Robert Browning.
Springs, magnets and monsters! collection
Diane Louise Jordan is finding out about forces, with dances inspired by springs, magnets and clockwork monsters.
Pinocchio. collection
A three-part unit taking the famous story of Pinocchio as the inspiration for children's dances.
