I love book bins within preschool and kindergarten classes. They offer many options around a particular subject. Today I want to share the idea of having an alphabet book bin within your classroom or studio – whether you are a preschool teacher, dance teacher at a studio, kindergarten teacher, or dance teaching artist in an elementary school.
Listed below is a great selection of alphabet books that can lead to a fun closing or opening activity in a dance class. Let me explain how this might work. Let's say you teach dance at a preschool. Let's say that the students are exploring the letter M this week. You can gather the students around you and the book bin. Select 3-4 books from the bin. Look at the M pages within these books. You and the students might begin class by making shapes in your bodies inspired by the images, or by exploring the action words in the books for the letter M.
If you look at the M page in 4-6 different books, use Post-It notes to mark the pages. After practicing a movement or shape for each page, as a group make an order for the ideas to build a simple phrase. Write the order and key words on chart paper or a dry erase board for easy reference.
From A Garden of Ordinary Miracles
You can repeat this same activity each week or every few weeks.
Here is my list for a book bin, with a variety of books about animals, flowers, food, actions, and dance specific vocabulary:
1. Alphabet of Dance: A Smithsonian Alphabet Book by Barbie Schwaeber
2. A Dictionary of Dance by Harriet Ziefert and illustrator Liz Murphy
3. On Your Toes: A Ballet ABC by Rachel Isadora
4. Alphabet Movers by Teresa Benzwie
5. ABC Yoga by Christiane Engel
6. Alphabreaths: The ABCs of Mindful Breathing by Christopher Willard and Daniel Rechtschaffen, with illustrator Holly Clifton-Brown
7. A Children's Day: An Alphabet of Play by Ida Pearle
8. ABCers by Carole Lexa Schaefer and illustrator Pierr Morgan
9. Roar Like a Dandelion by Ruth Krauss and illustrator Sergio Ruzzier
10. From A to Z with Energy! by Connie Bergstein Dow and illustrator Gareth Llewhellin
11. Alphamals A-Z by Graham Carter
12. Animal Action ABC by Karen Pandell and photographers Art Wolfe and Nancy Sheehan
13. Into the A, B, Sea by Deborah Lee Rose and Steve Jenkins
14. Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman
15. African Animal Alphabet (National Geographic Little Kids) by Beverly and Dereck Joubert
16. The New Alphabet of Animals by Christopher Wormell
17. 8: An Animal Alphabet by Elisha Cooper
18. Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
19. A Garden of Ordinary Miracles: An Alphabet Book by Robert Zakanitch
20. An ABC of Flowers by Jutta Hilpuesch
21. ABC Dream by Kim Krans
22. A B See by Elizabeth Doyle
23. ABC Love by Christiane Engel
24. Today I Feel: An Alphabet of Feelings by Madalena Moniz
If you search for these books on amazon.com, many can be purchased used for very reasonable prices. Your school librarian might also allow you to keep a set of books in your room for a few weeks at a time.
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