The Rescue Party. 2: Rabbit down the well!

School Radio > Dance > KS1: Let’s Move > The Rescue Party

1. Animals in the park - 2. Rabbit down the well! - 3. All pull together!

Justin Fletcher has the second dance session based on Nick Butterworth's popular Percy the Park Keeper story.

2. Rabbit down the well!

After adding new characters - rabbits skipping, hopping and jumping and new birds flapping and wing-fluttering - this part of the story emphasises co-operative movements. In a circle echo-game, the children mime calling out to the lost rabbit. Then the climax is a rope-chain - like a tug-of-war - where everyone heaves together on an imaginary rope to pull out…not a rabbit but an old log. Luckily the rabbit has escaped safely, so all’s well that ends well!

Resources

Lesson summary:

Warm up: park-keeping actions.

Mammals about: moving like Hedgehog, Mole, Badger, Fox and Mice.

Birds on the wing: moving like Owl, Duck, Blackbird, Sparrow and Pigeon.

Rabbit family arrives: a circle rabbit-dance, with some short jumps, skips, hops and high jumps.

Down the well: hopping, skipping and slow-motion falling.

All fall down: everyone repeats the young rabbit’s falling movements .

Oh dear, oh dear! Moving around the space, making worrying, sighing and wondering-what-to-do gestures.

The Big Idea: fetching a rope and peering down the well-hole.

Echo game: ‘shivering’ and ‘calling out’.

All pull together: forming a line, to tug, pull and heave.

Cool down: tiptoeing to safety and curling up on the ground for a rest.

Related units of KS1 Dance: Let's Move

School Radio > Dance > KS1: Let’s Move > The Rescue Party

1. Animals in the park - 2. Rabbit down the well! - 3. All pull together!