This bachelor's degree thesis with a title “Movement and Dance Stories in the Curriculum of Natural and Social Sciences” is separated into two parts, theoretical part and empirical part.
Theoretical part consists of the dance theory or creative movement. I have explained what exactly embodied cognition is and what have other pedagogues and scientists written about it. Because one cannot find a big plethora of professional literature on this topic, I have decided to explore how to connect dance and movement stories with natural and social science in the kindergarten.
Empirical part consists of six dance and movement activities which are connected to the different topics within the natural or social science.
The main point behind my thesis was to find out whether children are capable of using different dancing elements when expressing themselves through dance and movement and if I would have been able to meet the educational goal within the curriculum of natural or social science. At the end of the activity, I checked the level of acquired knowledge from the area of natural or social science through a drawing about a certain topic that was previously re-enacted through their body movement. Every child was able to communicate their understanding of the story and their feelings regarding the story with me. Since I have four foreign language children in my kindergarten group, I was intrigued by how will they connect with the dance and movement stories, how will their knowledge of the language progress and which will be easier for them to express with, movement, drawing or storytelling.
The children really enjoyed the dance and movement stories; they were relaxed and spontaneous as were their movements and whilst all this was happening, they were coming up with new and new dance elements. From time to time whilst they were listening to the stories, they used the outside encouragement which elevated their creative movement. Children have assimilated the knowledge about the natural and social science concepts with the help of the dance and movement stories since they used their bodies to re-enact them. All of the concepts were later drawn by them and trough their drawings, one could realise that they understood the point which proves the main goal of the thesis. Foreign language children were not always present when we were doing the dance and movement stories, but when they were, they watched and imitated the other children. It was much easier for them to express themselves through drawings than through speaking or through movement, since the understanding was not sufficient. With the participation in the dance and movement stories they showed their well being and content since they had a chance to be a part of a group activity which made them feel that they are a part of their kindergarten group.
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