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Chelsea Branch » Ms. Branch's Biography

Ms. Branch's Biography

Chelsea Branch is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She attended Hope College in Holland, MI and graduated with a BA in Dance Education K-12 and a minor in English Education. Chelsea worked at Hamilton Elementary School as the dance and yoga teacher. During her years at Hamilton, she designed and implemented a PK-8 dance curriculum centered around National Arts Standards that created opportunities for student creativity and voices. Chelsea worked closely with classroom teachers to build arts integrated units in literacy, math, and science. Additionally, she assisted in leading SEL initiatives that greatly improved the climate and culture for students. Mindfulness is a core value in Chelsea‘s work with students and she was trained by Mindful Schools. Chelsea is passionate about sharing yoga and is certified in Yoga Calm, Rainbow Kids Yoga, and became a RYT 200 yoga teacher through Marianne Wells Yoga School in Costa Rica. 

In her free time, Chelsea loves to read fiction and memoirs, cook (although she’s not very skilled yet), and is a professional dancer and choreographer. Chelsea co-owns The Rooted Space, a dance studio in North Center and serves as the Kids' Business Coach for Guppy Tank, a grant and mentorship program for young entrepreneurs.  

 
 

Posts

6th graders setting up for our Mindfulness and Yoga class. This week, we practiced the mindfulness anchor of sound. After each practice, students have time to reflect on their practice in their mindfulness journals before we move into our breathing and stretching poses. You may notice the circle, the set up that this group of 6th graders feels best in when practicing these skills. 
Costume Team is already dreaming of the magnificent costumes that we will create for our Wizard of Oz production this spring! Our costume vision alignment board has words like "bold," "bizarre," and "sparkly" on it so I expect that they will be magical! 
Second graders have been working hard on their Mindfulness and Yoga unit. Each class we practice a Mindful Schools lesson, journal about our practice, move our body through yoga poses, connect with our friends through silly games, and calm down through a final relaxation. Above you'll see two classmates communicating through non-verbal language which was loads of giggles, hilarious misunderstandings, and fun!
What FUN we had in our Decatur Dance 3-5 after school class! This group of students improved in every challenging skill I threw at them, learned lighting skills, worked together well as a team, and co-choreographed an energetic dance. Great work, Dancers!

First Grade Stretches

One of our favorite parts about our stretches in first grade is timing some of our quick movements together and watching ourselves as an ensemble in the mirror.
First graders worked on formations today. At first, each group had to copy the formation cards that Ms. Branch assigned, but by the end of class each group was creating their own! If you have ever worked on a team to create something, you know how many collaboration skills it takes to come to a final product. We also read "The Most Magnificent Thing" by Ashley Spires to get our mindset right as we prepare to create our own dances. We may not love every draft of the dance we create, but with perseverance and hard work we will create something magnificent!
During our first yoga class of the year, second graders worked together to answer the question, "What do you feel when you are in harmony with yourself and others?" We had an exciting day setting up our yoga mats, getting our mindfulness journals, and getting to create our own safe spaces internally to begin the work of self-awareness, regulation, and building community as a class!

Wizard of Oz 2022 Cast List!

Decatur students are SO READY to get started on our 2022 musical, "The Wizard of Oz." Cast and crew lists have been posted to Google Classrooms. With 74 students in the Auditioned Cast, 42 Crew Members, and 120 in our chorus, it is sure to be an energetic show! Mark your calendars for April 6th at 1:00pm and April 7th at 9:30am and 1:00pm to witness the magic as an audience member!
First Graders are choreographing dances in partners! We started with a floor map with three types of pathways: zig-zag, straight, and curved. Now we are creating dance moves for each pathway to memorize, rehearse, and perform for each other! The students are concentrating on working kindly and efficiently with their partner. 
Huge congratulations are in order to our 3rd graders who wrapped up a huge unit on Ballet! They now can perform an entire Ballet class in French and have improved their skills so much! Great work, 3rd grade!
Using props has been a ton of fun in Kindergarten! We are just wrapping up our time using scarves and it has been so fun to draw shapes, learn to balance it on different body parts, move to different speeds of music, and explore creatively moving with this prop! Every Kindergartener is now a prop master as we have learned how to treat props with respect throughout class!
First graders are learning all about SHAPE in dance class. We spent some time studying Pilobolus and their book, "The Human Alphabet" before taking on letters ourselves. Can you see which letter is being performed by two first grade students above? 
Exciting learning happening in the dance room as we learn to set up, program, and strike our new lights with our lighting board. Dancers are becoming lighting technicians as they learn all about the production element. 

We are excited to announce the 2022 spring show at Decatur, Wizard of Oz: Young Performers Edition! The show will take place on April 6th at 1:00pm and April 7th at 9:30am and 1:00pm. 4th and 6th grade students will be in the chorus of the production this year and 3rd-8th graders will be auditioning for main roles. You can find more information about auditions and rehearsals on our website. Please stay tuned for information about ticketing closer to the show.  

--Ms. Branch and Ms. Schmittle

Gotta give a quick shout out to this 4th Grade class right here! They have been studying Modern Dance, which is a very physically challenging dance genre and have been working so hard! We have added at least 20 new skills to our body's physical memory and an in depth understanding of our pelvis, spine, and skeletal system. Great work, 4th Grade dancers!
Ensemble Pic
Ensemble Pic2
Ensemble Pic 3