Hi toddler teachers! How did things go in classes this week our first week in? I have some individual feedback that I'll DM you separately but wanted to get your thoughts as well on how classes went!

I can’t wait for feedback! I loved my babies!!! But I also need to find my animal action music and a few more music activities. I love that Ayla is TA’ing our class too!! She has such amazing quiet energy! A perfect offset to my absolute crazy person energy lol

The babies may just be my new favorite class; I love my bigs kids and mini movers, but there's just something about the babies that are extra special. I know @Ariana Siguenza and I both have animal action songs so we can send you links to ours and maybe one of them is the one you're thinking of! There's so many of them so they might not be the right one but we'll try to help find it! The only thing I wanted to mention for your class Katy is that all of the babies who are enrolled are also enrolled in the dance class. So because that one is first, they are much better able to sit in the beginning of the dance class and stretch and warm up together before they get going! The hard thing about your class coming second is that they just finished at level 10 in their dance class and so they will probably find it hard to come back down to level 3 to sit and stretch again. Maybe consider inverting your class structure so that they can come right in with movement and activities then maybe place stretching at the end for a "cool down" once they're already getting more tired and ready to wrap up

@Ariana Siguenza @Bella Thoughts on the first week of classes for you guys?

I would like to request an assistant for the class. I’m a little bit out of shape for the little kids classes, but I think it’ll get better! I definitely have the drill sergeant teacher mindset and I need to fix that.

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I would like the same for my tiny tots class on saturdays, please! I only have three students signed up, but the two that were here last week both need a lot of interaction 1-on-1 because they're so shy. Also, I'm still unable to access the videos so I can remember how to teach littles 😅

@Ariana Siguenza Have you retried the videos today? They should be working now. Here's the link to the doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zXkqkrg0dEGrsDiPLkKjemepT2Hc6-ggs7Hm27qqsco/edit?usp=sharing

I will reach out to our students who are TA's to see who is available. Saturday's are really hard to find TA's for because the dancers aren't already coming in for class on this day but I will do my best. Bella your class is during leaps & turns II and Rhythm & Grooves III and I think most of the students I would normally have available to TA are in those classes. For September and October let's plan for me to team teach the mini mover classes with you both. I will run the first half for tap and then you will run the second half. For the second half for Ariana's class I will be able to stay in and act as an assistant. Bella for your second half I will need to step out to take Mia home before my tap class, but I will work on getting a TA who will still be able to stay in with your for the second half so you will still have someone assisting. Ariana, once you get comfortable with the second half of class, we will switch and you will run first half while I run second half

I had not tried yet today! Thank you!

@Bella I think you first class went relatively well in the beginning. Your peanut butter and jelly and ants go marching songs were big hits and can definitely make re-appearances. I think you you can work on strengthening is 1.) giving extra clear instructions so they know exactly where to go when and what to do during certain parts of the class and 2.) being more tuned in to when their attention is waning. When you see you're starting to lose them, that's usually a hint that you're putting too many stay in place and follow along songs together, and that they need a brain break and to be a little more free. Video one on the doc listed above is going to be really really helpful for you creating successful lesson plans for this age group

@Ariana Siguenza your baby class was great! What I would focus on for this age group is more doing and less explaining. They're just too little really be able to listen for very long but they can definitely follow along and do what you're doing. for them you'll need a well organized playlist that has songs lined up that they can follow along to (one little finger, slippery fish, the itsy bitsy spider with full body choreography, tap your toe and follow me, etc). I'll send over my go to baby playlist for you. Play the song and do the movements so they can watch and follow along. Play the same songs for several weeks in a row to give them time to start learning and recognizing the patterns. Incorporate props in fun ways to help bring them back in if you start to lose them. I'll be ordering more props this week for baby classes. We're just having to order in little chunk here and there to stay within our budget. This round will have scarves, bean bags, shakers, and a pop up tunnel. For the mini movers, you can follow a l similar method of correction, less talking and more doing! The first video in the doc will also be super helpful here. Have your playlist organized and ready to go so you don't have to spend time looking for your music.

The baby classes are fun, but they are definitely a skillset to be honed! Watch the videos in that doc as there are a ton of super helpful nuggets in there to start you off. I'll send along more resources like activities ideas, song suggestions, etc in this group as well.

I pinned the google doc to this channel for easy access!

Hi Ms. Tina and Ms. Kelly!! I'm finally wrapping up the organization of my toddler class folders to be able to send this out to you all soon! It will have a playlist of my favorite songs that I find works particularly well including some halloween themed songs for this month, video training on how I like to do certain activities (shoe change, right hand/left hand song, etc), and general notes that will hopefully be helpful for you in class! I'm using my day off today to finish this up and get this out to you!! While I do so, I'd love to hear from you on what you think is working well in your mini movers (and/or baby boogie for you Ms. Tina) classes, what you are still working on/struggling with, and any additional props or materials that you would like to see in studio A to help make your classes even more amazing! I'm happy to start! What's going well: • I'm always trying to find follow along songs in my class so that the music can do the heavy lifting for me of giving the instructions, which allows me to walk around more and help students individually, all while the entire group can keep doing the steps based on the music. In season 1 and season 2 I had a lot of great gross motor development songs for this, but anytime I wanted to focus on specific steps (ex: shuffle steps, plies, etc) I couldn't find a song that talked through doing them so I had to lead this in the front which prevented me from really giving help to my students and led to disengagement from kids that needed that hands on interaction. I found some great albums this year that are dance focused for toddlers that I've been using for so many skills (shuffle steps, toe digs, plies, etc) and it has been a game changer! I'm including those in my playlists for you all 🙂 • I subbed primary ballet this week (which is not a class I typically teach) and created some really fun technique activities they enjoyed that focused on straight knees in releve, slowwww plies, and foot placement in tendu, They had so much fun and were really focused on the details! Not quite a toddler class but still felt very happy with the class since it's not in my normal wheelhouse • Not a teacher note, but more of an owner celebration: last year mini movers was our smallest class. We only had one class and they had 3 students the entire year. So having two almost sold out classes is so exciting!! • I added a new shuffle step exercise with my baby bar and oh my goodness is both super cute and super helpful. I don't think I've filmed this yet but I can film it this weekend in Sat. Mini Movers What I'm Working on: • Excuse my excited rant that is likely much longer than it needs to be and may not be very eloquent or clear due, in part, to sheer excitement and in part to tired mom brain: ◦ I have a pretty huge project in the works for next year (Launch by season 4, but maybe a trial run mid-season 3). I want to provide the parents for the toddler classes and the dancers in the older classes, a way to measure and celebrate their progress and see what they will striving towards next. I'm creating a massive releveling for all classes and ages that breaks down everything into super bite sized milestones. For each class there will be a level with sub levels and sub milestones. Once a student accomplishes one of those milestones, they will get it checked off on their growth map on their account. Once they've checked off all the sub skills in that group they move up to the next tier of that level and repeat. One all tiers of that level are complete they move up to the next level/class. This celebrates the little wins that create huge accomplishments! See example blow on what the first draft of the baby boogie levels looks like. Once they complete all these for tap, ballet, and tumbling then they can go on to tiny tots, then to mini movers, etc etc. This helps them also track when their dancer is ready to move up to the next level class. I hope to have this for every class in the studio by next season. My above one was more on the studio owner side so on the teacher side, I'm feeling pretty good about everything! The baby boogie takes a lot of energy of course and that's a little tricky for my mom self that's honestly still deep in baby exhaustion postpartum, but I think that will just get better as time goes on. I don't think there's much I can do there in regards to lesson planning or class structure to make that easier 🙂 It's just par for the course Things I'd like in the studio: • For mini movers I've been adding in the colored lights for freeze dance veeeery seldomly as a special treat. We usually keep them in studio I for the older kids so I'd definitely like to move them into A before my class every 3-4 weeks to utilize • We use to have a stand for the cones to keep them more organized but idk where that went so that might be helpful • New bags to hold the shaker and the bean bags would be super great • New bean bags in general as these are from season 1 and are finally starting to get holes in them • Halloween themed stamps! Our old stamps are finally kaput as they've dried out over the last two years. Some halloween themed ones can be fun for this month. I try to go hypoallergenic stamps vs stickers mostly because our studio runs every day so we try to be as zero waste as possible (hand dryers in bathroom, towels for spills vs paper towels, stamps vs stickers, etc). That's all for me! Let me know where you're at this season! Now that the year is in full swing and we are aaaaaaaaalmost fully staffed (still needing a ballet teacher on Monday 😕 ), I finally have a little extra time. I'd love to use this channel to converse more on all things toddler classes!

Example of the milestones for baby boogie! They would a cool graphic timeline type map on their account labeled with the skills, the levels, and the classes to see a visual representation of their progress. Once I have a more full flushed version for toddler classes (baby boogie, tiny tots, and mini movers) I'll send it to you guys for feedback! Which skills should be moved up or down, which skills have I not included that I should add, etc

Awesome these classes are always so fun and I am excited to implement a growth chart. Things that are working well on my end are a lot of the movement activities songs. I have also done several games like a two team chasse relay race or a passé balance completion. Another helpful activity I learned in one of my college classes where the students have to pick a toy to pretend to be. There is a story that goes along with the dancing kind of like the flower story, and they enjoy this activity a lot. Also the mini movers class boo activity song that we used this weekend was a huge hit. As for materials that might be helpful, my old studio had a small parachute with handles that we used to tippy toe in a circle, or chasse around. Plus they can take turns switching places by going underneath. So far everything’s been going really well in these classes. I think you can see the biggest development of both dance skills and just general social skills at this age so it is always really fun to see that growth through a whole year.

Hi everyone! I'm still working on somethings but here is what I have to share for today: Since we have so many people co-teaching I thought it would help to have a shared document where we can put down what we plan on leading that week so the other teacher knows who's doing what and what songs are already being used in order to not have duplicate song selections There's a lesson plan for today for mini movers. @Verna Einhaus @Kelly Cazinha Do you guys mind if I hop in today? I want to film some more in class. I left my lesson plan in the sheet if that's okay with you! I'm also starting to fill in some of the progression charts I'm working on for next season to get your feedback on. Lastly I'm in progress of adding my playlist info here too! I have it all done, I just have to update the links as some of them are broken. But that should be added by Thursday morning for everyone! Happy halloween show week! See you all soon

I don't mind if you come in! Also, I was under the impression Verna was a TA so haven't been having her lead any of class, my apologies! If she feels comfortable today, we can start having her lead parts of class. If not, I'll give her some time to prep for next week and start that next week!

No worries at all! Thanks so much Ms. Kelly, I'll see you guys soon 🙂

Also today's the day we dress up for this class right?

Sorry I just saw this!!! I dress up on Saturday for comp party since I have shows every day

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I also updated the toddle hub (sent above in Oct.) with the playlists for music suggestions with links. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing it/finding it

Hi everyone! Long time no touch base! Sorry it's been a crazy busy time. Here's some notes/updates for this upcoming month: • Recital prep is underway! Please start teaching your mini movers their routine as soon as your music choice is approved! We try to finish teaching their full routine in about 4 weeks so they have plenty of time to get it in their bodies before the show! We recommend spending a max of 10-15 minutes on recital each week. Their brains can only handle so much rehearsal time 🙂 Keep it fun and engaging. Remember, more doing and less saying. • Ms. Kelly's class is doing tap so Ms. Tina and I will do ballet (which works perfectly with everyone's specialty). We do this so that if dancers want to do two routines, they get the option to by simply signing up for both mini movers classes! • Here are the things I'd like to see us focus on this upcoming month: ◦ Tuesday Class: ▪︎ Verna leading more of the class independently, but also giving more hands on assistance in class during the moments that Ms. Kelly is leading ◦ Saturday Class: ▪︎ Ms. Tina I think dividing the class in half (one person lead tap and one lead ballet) worked well last week! Let's try to keep that system this month and see if we like it. I can take whichever portion of class you'd like me to lead this upcoming weekend ◦ All: ▪︎ Spending more time facing your dancers while teaching and not solely teaching through the mirror. I think we get in the habit of doing this when we teacher older kids a lot, but the littles definitely need more face to face interaction ▪︎ Integrating our props more into class (and not just for free dance!). Props are a powerful tool to help make technique and skill learning more fun and engaging. ▪︎ Along those same lines, finding new and fun ways to teach/practice technical elements • Example: For our battements in Saturday class we've done them on our spots to the "watch me kick" song, we've done them standing while holding a noodle in front of us to aim for, we've done them across the floor while wearing the cones on our heads to practice standing up tall while doing them, and we've done them across the floor while the teacher holds one of the tambourines in front of us to practice getting our legs high enough to kick the tambourine and make sound. How can you mix up your exercises to keep them having fun ▪︎ Exploring music options. We have a huge database of songs to go through and use! Mix it up and keep your class fresh! Use some of the old favorites while also trying new tracks as well! ◦ Giving feedback on the curriculum I'm building for next year. ▪︎ Please please please take a look at the curriculum that's in the works for next year to give me your feedback and ideas! I'm building all of this from scratch so I'd love the extra insight from our dance educators! What steps are missing, what developmental milestones do I have in the wrong age group, which skills maybe need to be swapped to build progression wise. I'm lucky enough to have all three of us be in the psychology realm and also have one teacher that specializes in tap and one that specializes in ballet, so I feel confident we can set some great foundations for our dancers! I think that's all for now! Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Monday everyone! A few reminders: • Please do get in a habit of "reacting" to all messages sent so I know everyone has seen the message 🙏🏾 • We used to do studio stamps for the younger students (because we try our best to be zero waste at the studio - hence towels instead of paper towels, electronic rosters instead of paper roster, encouraging dancers to bring their own water bottles but having cups as back ups juuuuust in case, etc) but teachers showed a preference for stickers in lieu of the stamps so I didn't restock them once they ran out. But we had a request for stamps instead so I've purchase this purple hypoallergenic ink as well as these stamps to get us started. If there are other stamps that you'd like ordered please slack them to the admin and myself in a group DM so I can have them ordered for you. ◦ There's multiple ways you can handle the stamps. I like to pick on student each week who gets to choose which stamp our class gets (but just be sure to keep track of who has and hasn't had a turn so that you can get through everyone by the end of the year). You can also walk around with the three stamp options and give each dancer 3 seconds to point to the stamp they want to choose that day. Whatever floats your boat ◦ Reminder that if you need any additional props to please follow this same process to get those ordered for you • Finally, I want to make sure everyone knows how to access the toddler class music directory and also knows that each tablet is loaded with Amazon music. Staff has access to our amazon music account login so you are able to pre-compose your own playlists at home to use in class. I do this for my baby boogie and mini movers classes and find it very helpful. In the training video from Dec. I talked about crafting playlists for each week that are ready to go in order for classes. If you need help logging in to our amazon music please reach out to Mr. Caleb for assistance I think that's all! Thanks and have a great Monday 🙂

Hi everyone! Here are a few short 4-5 minute meetings to watch for what to focus on this month and next for our mini movers classes. Please remember to react to this message once you've seen this slack @Christina Alavezos @Kelly Cazinha @Verna Einhaus Importance of Progression in Mini Movers Toddler Progression Sheet Teaching Technique in Mini Movers Playlist for class Teacher Trainees Let me know if you have any questions!

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Hi friends! Welcome to our toddler class channel for classes ages 5 and under! I'll be adding some resources to the canvas on the top right for easy finding for you all. For now it has tiny tots playlists, mini movers tap/ballet playlist I'm also going to add baby boogie songs very soon as well! It also has a list of props we have currently. Please let me know if there are any props you'd like me to add to our repertoire or if there are any questions you have!

@Julieta Garcia @Christina Alavezos For baby boogie and tiny tots are you both happy with the current divide? Ms. Julieta teaching the dance portion and Ms. Tina teaching the tumbling portion? Or would you prefer them to be swapped