Top Dogs Friday Dance Contests

Fri-Yay!-As Mrs. Kim likes to say.

On Fridays, in the Top Dogs Class, it is time to boogie!

And learn some life lessons.

Here’s what it looks like-All of the preschool pals gather on the rainbow rug.  We then play a song that has a word in it that starts with the letter of the week, for example, “B” week is “Basketball” by Kurtis Blow, or “C” week is”Cars” by Gary Numan.  We all begin to “warm up” by dancing together.

After the warm-up, we ask everyone if they heard the word that started with the letter of the week.  Next we have all the preschool pals sit in a circle around the rainbow rug; the rainbow rug is now our dance floor.

We start the song again and each preschool pal has a chance to go out on the floor and dance their hearts out, showing everyone their best moves, while the rest of the class is cheering them on.  After everyone has had a turn, we have a “drum roll” and then announce the winner!  The winner then gets to select something from Top Dog Treats.

Yes-only one winner.  Let me tell you why.

We use the dance contest to teach many things-

1.  How deal with disappointment.  Such an important lesson to learn.  We talk about how it feels to lose.  How to sit with those emotions and process the emotions is a healthy way.
2. Resilience-How do I move on from these emotions and not give up?  To continue to try and run your race.
3. How to be happy for someone else when they win.
4. How to lose gracefully and how to handle trash talk in appropriate way.
5. How to be a kind winner.
6. To happily participate in an activity, not necessarily to be the best, but because it is fun.  Not to take themself too seriously.  That is okay that you are not the best.  There are always going to be people that are better at things than you, and that is okay!

So, this is our dance contest in a nutshell.  Isn’t  so crazy how much a simple dance contest can help prepare our preschool pals for life?  :).