Alphabet Series: The Letter T

When you and your students explore the letter T, these books can be springboards and inspiration for improvisation and dance projects.

T is for Toe

 
Eric Carle’s book From Head to Toe is a simple story that easily translates into a warm up exercise in a preschool or kindergarten class. As you read along, you and your students can wiggle, stretch, and bend different body parts, taking inspiration from animals.

T is for Tall

Like From Head to Toe, Denise Fleming’s In the Tall, Tall Grass is full of actions. You can read aloud as you ask your students to improvise around your classroom – darting, dipping, crunching, and munching. The words offer great variety and a sense of playfulness. 

T is for Trucks

Tip Tip Dig Dig - by Emma Garcia – also is filled with verbs to inspire an improv activity or group dance, this time taking inspiration from a variety of trucks. Students will love to lift, dig, and roll. 

T is for Tuesday

The Caldecott Medal book Tuesday by David Wiesner is a book with flying, sneaking frogs. Read the book to your class and then encourage them to "show you" the story through an improvised frog dance. Take notes on a white erase board or chart paper – noting how the students move. Select 6-8 movements to create a "sneaky frog dance" as a group. 

Alphabet Books Too

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 T, look at all of the "T pages" in your bin. Have students pair up, and give each pair one alphabet book. Ask them to find the T 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 "T Dance."

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