When you and your students explore the letter P, these books can be springboards and inspiration for improvisations and dance projects.
P is for Prepositions
I am always on the lookout for picture books with prepositions. Prepositions are so fun to explore in movement with students in preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grades. You can explore relationships – over, under, around, and through – whether it is students dancing with a prop (hula hoop), students dancing together, or using imagery to inspire movement (ex. crawling through a tunnel).
Tana Hoban's classic picture book Over, Under, and Through is a great starting off point. Up, Down, and Around (Katherine Ayres and illustrator Nadine Bernard Westcott) is also a great exploration of prepositions as well as plants.
You might play with different parts, dividing the class into two to explore the "above ground" and "under the ground" ideas (such as in Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner).
- Over, Under, and Through - Tana Hoban
- Rosie's Walk - Pat Hutchins
- Star Climbing - Lou Fancher, with paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
- We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
- Over and Under in the Snow - Kate Messner, with art by Christopher Silas Neal
- Up, Down, and Around - Katherine Ayres, with art Nadine Bernard Westcott
P is for Penguin
Fun, play, skating, gliding, and conversation. This is the beautiful "dance" of Flora with a penguin in Molly Idle's latest wordless picture book, Flora and the Penguin. If you loved Flora and the Flamingo, check out this new book!
The artwork literally dances off the page. The book is a great springboard as you explore partner work, working together, mirroring, and shaping.
You can use the book for inspiration, the images for actual movement ideas, or the storyline to create a group dance. As for music, the classical skating piece "Les Patineurs" is a great option.
P is for Pond
Denise Fleming's book In the Small, Small Pond explores the actions of creatures in a pond – diving, swimming, wiggling, etc. Students will love improvising the various movements or having their own "part" as you read the entire book and make a group dance.
P is for Pathway
Here are four books to inspire moving in straight lines, zig zags, curving pathways, and much more.
1. Little Green by Keith Baker
A hummingbird – making various pathways in space (zig zag, curlycue, etc)
2. Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls and Michael Hays
A son and mother taking a walk and exploring all different ways to walk – big steps, small steps, zig zag pathways
3. Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman and Steve Wilson
An artistic exploration of lines that wiggle, bend, spiral, curve, etc.
4. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
An imaginative tale of a little boy drawing his world around him – the path he takes, the moon in the air, and much more to create an adventure
P is for Purple
To explore the color purple, you can pull out all of your books about colors. Four examples include: My Many Colored Days, Colour, Living Color, and The Rainbow Book. What are our associations with purple? How can we translate these ideas into movement? Ideally, see if you can pull out 3-5 books on color. Look at the purple pages, and then explore movement ideas related to these pages. You can even string the 3-5 ideas together.
Using Your Book Bin of Alphabet Books
As I suggested in the first post of this alphabet series, creating a book bin of alphabet books is a great idea. For example with the letter P, look at all of the "P pages" in your bin. Have students pair up, and give each pair one alphabet book. Ask them to find the P page. What movement or shape can they create related to that page? Give each pair a chance to share in front of the class. Again, you can string all of the ideas together to create a "P Dance."
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