How to Set SMART Goals for Your Preschool Dance Classes
When planning preschool dance classes, it's easy to get caught up in choosing themes, music, props, and activities. And while all of those things are important, there's another question we should be asking ourselves as teachers: What do I actually want my students to learn? It's a question that can sometimes get lost in the excitement of planning an imaginative dance class. After all, we want our students to have fun! But behind every game, creative movement activity, and dance exercise, there should be a purpose.
One way to bring a little more structure to your lesson planning is through SMART goals. These can help you identify the skills and concepts you want to introduce, plan activities that support those objectives, and recognize the progress your students are making over time. And don't worry. This doesn't mean turning your preschool dance classes into a series of tests or expecting every child to master a particular skill by the end of the month. Instead, SMART goals can be a useful planning tool that helps you teach with greater intention while still allowing plenty of room for creativity and play.
What Are SMART Goals?
SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. It's a framework used in many areas of education and business to help turn broad objectives into more concrete goals. For preschool dance teachers, it can be especially helpful when planning lessons or organizing a series of classes around a particular movement concept.
For example, you might have a general goal of helping your students improve their balance. That's a worthwhile objective, but it's also fairly broad. What kind of balance are you working on? How will you introduce it? And how will you recognize progress?
A SMART goal encourages you to think through those questions before you begin teaching. Let's look at how each part of the framework can be applied to preschool dance.
1. Specific: Identify What You Want Students to Learn
The first step is to choose a clear skill or movement concept you want your students to work on. Instead of simply deciding that your class will focus on coordination, for example, you might choose to introduce balancing on one foot, jumping with two feet, or moving in time with a steady beat. The more specific your objective, the easier it becomes to choose activities that support it.
Let's say you're planning a lesson around balance. You might begin by asking students to stand like flamingos, lifting one foot off the floor. Later, you could introduce a game in which students travel through an imaginary forest and stop to balance whenever the music pauses. Both activities reinforce the same movement concept, but they allow children to practice it in different ways.
Example: Introduce balancing on one foot and provide opportunities for students to practice maintaining that position for a few seconds.
2. Measurable: Look for Signs of Progress
Once you've identified your objective, consider how you'll recognize whether students are developing the skill. With older dancers, we may evaluate technique using fairly specific criteria. With preschoolers, however, progress often looks different. A child who initially struggles to lift one foot off the floor may begin holding the position for a second or two. Another may gradually become more comfortable balancing without holding onto a wall or the teacher's hand. Both children are making progress, even if they haven't reached exactly the same level of ability.
You don't need to stop class to measure every student's balance or record detailed observations after every lesson. In many cases, simply knowing what to look for will help you recognize improvement as you teach.
Example: Observe whether students can briefly lift one foot off the floor, maintain their balance with less support, or hold the position for a little longer than they could previously.
3. Achievable: Consider Your Students' Developmental Abilities
This is one of the most important considerations when setting goals for preschool dance. Young children develop at different rates, and a skill that comes easily to one child may be challenging for another. Even within the same class, you'll likely have students with different levels of coordination, strength, confidence, and previous movement experience. When choosing a goal, consider what is realistic for the age group you're teaching, but also be prepared to adapt your expectations for individual students.
For example, if you're working on balancing on one foot, some children may be ready to practice without support. Others may need to hold onto a wall, a barre, or your hand. You can still work toward the same general objective while allowing children to participate at an appropriate level.
Example: Provide both supported and unsupported balancing activities so students can practice the skill according to their current abilities.
4. Relevant: Connect Your Goals to Dance Education
Preschool dance classes provide opportunities for children to develop a wide range of skills, but that doesn't mean every developmental objective needs to become a dance lesson. I think it's helpful to begin with the movement concepts and foundational skills that are most relevant to dance, then consider the additional developmental benefits those activities may provide. Balance, for example, is important for learning ballet steps such as relevé, passé, and eventually more advanced movements. It's also a fundamental movement skill children use in everyday activities.
Likewise, practicing jumps can help students develop coordination and control while introducing movement patterns they'll later use in ballet and other dance styles. By keeping your objectives connected to dance education, you can make sure your lessons are both developmentally appropriate and purposeful.
Example: Introduce balancing on one foot as a foundational movement skill that will support more advanced dance movements as students grow.
5. Time-Bound: Give Yourself a Planning Window
The final part of a SMART goal is establishing a timeframe. In preschool dance, I prefer to think of this as a planning window rather than a deadline by which every child must demonstrate mastery. You might choose to focus on balance over a four-week session, introducing different activities that allow students to explore and practice the concept. At the end of those four weeks, you can evaluate how the class has progressed and decide whether to revisit the skill, introduce a new challenge, or move on to another objective.
Some students may make considerable progress during that time, while others will need additional opportunities to practice. That's perfectly normal. And remember, foundational movement skills aren't something we teach once and then check off a list. Children will continue developing balance, coordination, and musicality throughout their dance education.
Example: Over the next four weeks, incorporate balancing activities into each class and observe students' progress before deciding how to build on the skill.
Putting It All Together: An Example of a Preschool Dance SMART Goal
Now that we've looked at each part of the framework, let's put everything together. Suppose you're teaching a class of three- and four-year-olds and want to focus on balance. Your SMART goal might be:
Over the next four weeks, I will introduce and reinforce balancing on one foot through age-appropriate dance activities, with the goal of helping students improve their ability to briefly maintain the position with or without support. I'll observe their progress throughout the session and adjust activities according to their individual abilities.
This goal is:
Specific: It focuses on balancing on one foot.
Measurable: You can observe whether students are able to maintain their balance with greater control or less assistance.
Achievable: It allows for different developmental abilities within the class.
Relevant: Balance is a foundational movement skill used throughout dance.
Time-Bound: It establishes a four-week period for focused instruction and observation.
Notice that the goal doesn't require every student to balance independently for three seconds by the end of the session. Instead, it gives you a clear teaching objective while allowing students to make progress at their own pace.
Bringing Your Goals Into the Dance Classroom
Once you've established a goal, the next step is choosing activities that will help your students work toward it. This is where imaginative teaching can be especially valuable. If your objective is balance, you might introduce flamingo poses, pretend to walk across a narrow bridge, or ask students to freeze in different positions when the music stops. If you're working on jumping, you might have students hop like bunnies, jump over imaginary puddles, or practice soft landings as they pretend to be raindrops falling from the sky. And if your objective is musical awareness, you could use marching games, movement activities that alternate between fast and slow music, or exercises that encourage students to recognize when the music starts and stops. The activities may look like games, but each one has a specific purpose. That's one of the things I love about teaching preschool dance. We can introduce meaningful movement concepts through activities that feel like play to our students.
A Few Things to Remember When Setting Goals
As you begin incorporating SMART goals into your lesson planning, keep a few things in mind.
Don't try to accomplish too much in one lesson. Preschoolers benefit from repetition, and introducing too many new concepts at once can make it difficult for them to develop familiarity with a skill. Choose a manageable number of objectives and revisit them through different activities.
Allow room for individual differences. Even students of the same age may be at very different stages of development. Your goals should guide your instruction without becoming rigid expectations for every child.
Remember that progress isn't always linear. A student may demonstrate a skill beautifully one week and struggle with it the next. Fatigue, attention, confidence, and many other factors can affect how young children participate in class.
Keep the experience enjoyable. Your students don't need to know that they're working toward a SMART goal. They simply need engaging, age-appropriate opportunities to explore and practice movement.
Purposeful Teaching Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
SMART goals can be a helpful tool for bringing greater intention to your preschool dance classes. They encourage us to think beyond which activities we'll teach and consider what we want our students to gain from those activities. But they don't need to make lesson planning complicated.
Start with a movement concept or skill, consider what progress might look like for your students, and choose activities that give them opportunities to practice. Then observe, adapt, and build on what they're learning. When we combine thoughtful planning with imaginative, developmentally appropriate instruction, we can create preschool dance classes that are both purposeful and enjoyable. And that's really what we're working toward: helping young children develop a strong foundation in dance while discovering the joy of movement.
