African Animals ABC

I just rediscovered this book this week on my shelf, African Animals ABC by Philippa-Alys Browne.

What I really like about this book is the variety of action words used over the 26 pages (snap, dive, quiver, scuttle, etc). There are also quite a few verbs that could nicely "pause" the students so that improvising with each page isn't too chaotic – words like nap, blink, graze. It is a nice balance of action words that will travel in space, as well as slower, more stationary movements.

This book can easily be used in K-2 classes for an improvisation, or you could create a dance using all or some of the text as inspiration.

The book is out of print, but used copies can be found online at amazon.com. For Bay Area teaching artists and teachers, the Oakland Public Library has 2 copies.