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

Ballet in action! Our third graders are doing a great job practicing their Ballet skills! Check out our releves above!

Learning Ballet Vocabulary
One of the challenges of learning Ballet is that so much of the vocabulary is in French because Ballet was created in France. In third grade, we are working on increasing our knowledge of the French Ballet Vocabulary and recognition of the dance skills through use of flash cards. We had a great time working in partners this week to learn the words that we will put into motion next week!

Modern Dance Assessments Coming Up!

Fourth and Fifth graders reviewed their Modern dance vocabulary this past week and will take the performance and written assessments during their next dance class. Please remind your student to check their Google Classrooms for the study guides, history slides, and videos for their grade's content.

The Alphabet Book by Pilobolus Dance Company and Decatur First Graders!

Decatur's First Graders are learning how to use our communication tool for dance class: our bodies! Our first assignment was to create the alphabet with partners. Take a look at our video for a quick look at our group work assignment!

Second Grade Jazz Class

Our second graders are learning the basic Jazz vocabulary skills in dance class. We have had a great time building onto the skills we already know from Ballet class and learning new skills like jazz drag, pirouettes, and grande jetes!

Sixth graders have been working on a school-wide "Positivity Project" to help spread gratitude and good vibes throughout the building. This week, students took the time to thank staff members for their kindness at Decatur.

Fifth grade is working on a Horton Modern unit! We learned about Lester Horton, a pioneer of Modern dance and are now learning his technique. Today we discussed side laterals and students learned how important it is to support the spine during the Horton technique.

2019-20 Essentials' Welcome Letter

Click the link to see the 2019-20 Essentials' Welcome Letter.

6th graders were hard at work kicking off mindfulness around Decatur by making recommendations of mindfulness cards that they believe teachers could find useful around our school.

Fifth graders from 110 chose to round out our year with yoga. We decided on our goals and outcomes we wanted from the unit as a class. Here are just a couple from our list:

Help improve flexibility
Improve the classroom community through teambuilding
Make me feel calm
Improve sleep
Find a way to cool down when I feel anger

The photo above was after our yoga poses and breathing for the day when we played "Rock, Paper, Scissors," yoga pose style.

Our third graders are working on the last unit of the year, "Jazz Beginnings: Bob Fosse!" We are learning two of his most famous works: "Sing Sing Sing" (105) and "Steam Heat" (102). The students are having a blast learning to use his favorite prop, a hat!

Each day when second graders walk into dance we take a "Mindful Moment." Sometimes, its a quick focus game we play while tuning into our sense and other times our lovely second graders help us focus on the present moment by playing some mindful instruments. Here are our Mindful Moment leaders this week on the chime, two types of rain-sticks, and a shell shaker.

The Chicago Children's Theatre worked with our third grade students for two days for a residency program that culminated in a parade for our community! Amazing work, third graders, on your song, parade chant, and visual art puppets!