Deep Thoughts

For the third year in a row, I had my kindergarten students make their own tap shoes today. It’s for our World Course study on feelings and self-expression. The kids are learning about different art forms including music and dance, storytelling and drama, and art and photography. To my mind, tap dancing is perfect for little kids. It’s fast paced, multi-sensory, and rhythmic. It involves stomping, jumping, and noisemaking. Sure, there are specific tap dancing styles, methods, and techniques, but you don’t need to know them to dance and express yourself. All you need are regular ole’ shoes, about two dozen metal coins, and some packing tape. After taping the coins to the balls and heels of the undersides of your shoes, suddenly you’ve got your very own DIY tap shoes! I played a few tap dancing videos featuring Fred Astaire, Savion Glover, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and the kids danced along to them. It was a lot of fun.