Early this year, members of a Grade 3-4 class at Valleycliffe Elementary School set out with a driving intention to bring joy to others though a flash mob dance routine.
By all accounts, it appears they've succeeded in spades.
Last week the Sea to Sky School District board of trustees and toddlers at the Discovery Kids Preschool were the mostly smiling targets of a flash mob of the popular song, What Does the Fox Say? performed by Ms. Sollid's charges.
Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with T.F.M. (The Flash Mob) on the back and their own words about how performing the dance makes them feel, the eight- and nine-year-old students performed a routine choreographed to the tune by Norwegian duo Ylvis that has seen almost 400 million page views on YouTube since last fall.
As with most flash mobs, the element of surprise was a part of the routine the performance at last Wednesday's (March 12) meeting began with four of the students making a verbal presentation to the board. After one student paused and said she forgot something in the hallway, the rest of the class began filing into the crowded room as the music began.
At the preschool, members of Ms. Sollid's class hid in a backroom while the preschoolers were coming in from outdoor play time, then began filing into the room and dancing.
The students' teacher, Kirsten Sollid, told The Chief that student Maria Neighbor suggested doing a flash mob during a class discussion in January. It didn't take long for the youngsters to choose the song.
It was unanimous decision, because it's a song with a special place in our hearts, she said, adding that Kinua McWatt and Kayley came up with the original set of dance moves.
The entire process has followed many of the principles of project-based learning, including collaboration, assessing, analyzing and problem-solving, Sollid said.
The class started trying out the dance and that's when they started to analyze the moves, assessing and brainstorming what other moves would fit in, what works and what doesn't work, she said.
What the kids noticed as things progressed was their boundaries were expanding tremendously, as far as self-confidence was concerned.
Most project-based, collaborative learning exercises start with a driving question, but in this case the students chose a driving intention to spread joy through a surprise dance performance, she said.
Before the first performance, which was scheduled during Random Acts of Kindness Week in February, the students began wearing their T-shirts around the school to heighten the suspense, then sprung the surprise on their schoolmates at an all-school assembly.
That's when, as Ms. Sollid said, Everybody got up and danced.
Future performances are planned at dates and times known only to a select few, she said.
