Dance in Early Childhood Education

Many children love to dance, even if others might be watching them. They don’t worry whether or not they are doing right. They simply dance for the joy of it. But, in many cases, by the time they reach junior high kids are far less likely to dance in public. While this is not necessarily a negative trend, it does show that dance is not as valued in education as it could, and should, be.

One of the main reasons dance is beneficial in Early Childhood education because dance increases children’s learning skills through kinesthetic problem solving. “When children are presented with an abstract dance problem, they are encouraged to think it through with a kinesthetic solution. This form of learning tends to resonate the strongest with children and the cognitive learning skills that they develop in the dance studio can be carried over into the classroom as they develop their ability to think through abstract problems” (dancebrought2u.com). Learning how to dance teaches children how to think critically and how to solve problems. This directly relates to their skills in the classroom.

While Building Kidz is a preschool and not a dance studio, we integrate dance into our weekly curriculum. Each week, a qualified dance teacher comes into each classroom and works with the children. Even when the dance teacher is not there, our children are given the opportunity to dance each day. Within our daily activities, dance is used with song to help children understand academic concepts including language and math.

To learn more about our curriculum and programs, please go to buildingkidzschool.com.