Several times a year, I have the wonderful opportunity to write for another blog, Book to Boogie. This month, I wrote about the picture book Jonathan and His Mommy. If you are looking for a book about parent/child relationships, pathways, and locomotor steps, check it out. Read more here.
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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).
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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When you and your students explore the letter M, these books can be springboards and inspiration for improvisations and dance projects.
M is for MOVING
Move! – Numbers on the Move – Alphabet Movers
Float….swing….leap! Join the animals moving in Steve Jenkins's book Move!, available in hardback and board book formats. Move! inspires you and your students to do a wide variety of locomotor actions.
Teresa Benzwie has written two movement-related books, exploring the alphabet and numbers. Both are great for warm ups and getting students to move in various ways:
M is for MOM
There are great books with mothers and children dancing together, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart and Jonathan and His Mommy. I especially love Jonathan and His Mommy, as it is a beautiful springboard to explore walking and pathways with students.
M is for MABEL
Mabel Dancing is a playful book to share in a preschool setting or at home with parents and child. It is a “classic story” in some ways of a little girl who dreams of dancing and naturally wants to move and dance at home.
Mabel’s parents dress up to have a dance party downstairs in their large house. Mabel is tucked into bed for the night while the party takes place. She cannot resist, and ends up sneaking downstairs to have her short moment dancing too.
M is for the MOON
Eric Carle's 1986 book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me is a gentle story between a girl and her father. The daughter so wants the moon, and the father "catches" it for her. But, as we know, the moon "appears" and "disappears" in our lives each month. The story is a playful way to explore the phases of the moon. And, like the images in the book, students can also dance with a crescent moon if you make a prop for the class. Play one of the those classic jazz tunes – like "It's Only a Paper Moon" – as you and your students dance.
M is for MERMAIDS
Last, have you had students who have requested to dance a "mermaid dance?" This book – literally titled Mermaid Dance - can be translated into a dance for your students.
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Search for these great "M books" at the school library, public library, or online. Many are reasonably priced (used) on amazon.com.
Exploring letters and the alphabet through reading, movement, and dancemaking creates powerful connections for young learners.
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LINES
Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman and Steve Wilson is a playful book with lots of examples of lines. Explore these lines by making shapes with your whole body, drawing in space, or making pathways with your feet.
EXPLORE YOUR BOOK BIN OF ALPHABET BOOKS
As I mentioned at the start of this series, I recommend having a book bin of alphabet books in your classroom or studio. That way, with letters like L, you might pull out a few books and simply look at the letter L. If the image is of a lion, can you lead an improv related to it? If the image is of a child low to the ground, can you explore multiple ways to move on a low level? Using a few of the books in the bin can lead to some easy warm up activities.
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J is for….jumping, Josephine, and Jonathan!
J is for Jumping
Learning how to jump is a key movement milestone in childhood. Jumping is launching off of two feet and landing on two feet (hopping is on one foot). Create a jumping dance with your class – big jumps, small jumps, turning jumps, etc.
There are three books to read alongside your exploration:
Jumping Day - Barbara Esbensen and Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Jump Frog Jump - Robert Kalan and Byron Barton
Hop Jump - Ellen Stoll Walsh
J is for Jonathan
I love the book Jonathan and His Mommy for many reasons. It is a sweet tale of a mother and son dancing and moving around town – big steps, small steps, zigzag steps. The text will easily lead to an activity about pathway.
J is for Josephine
Explore the life and story of dancer Josephine Baker in the picture book Jazz Age Josephine by author Jonah Winter and illustrator Marjorie Pricemen. Read the story to your class, and then get them up on their feet, using Priceman's kinesthetic illustrations as inspiration for body shapes.
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When you and your students explore the letter H, some of these books can be springboards and inspiration for improvisations and dance projects.
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H is for Head (to Toe)
Eric Carle's From Head to Toe is one of my favorite books to explore in parent/child, preschool, and kindergarten classes. The words literally lead a warm up for you….moving our heads, shoulders, hips, and toes. Purchase a used copy of this book here.
H is for Hopping
Hopping is one of the building blocks of dance – moving on one foot. I am always on the lookout for books that involve the basic locomotor steps of: walking, running, hopping, jumping, skipping, galloping, and leaping.
Check out Ellen Stoll Walsh's Hop Jump as a springboard for exploring the concepts of hopping, jumping, and "dancing."
H is for Hummingbirds
As mentioned in several prior posts, Keith Baker's Little Green is a whimsical picture book for dancing like a fast moving hummingbird as well as moving through different pathways in space (zig zag lines, curly cue lines, etc).
H is for Haring (Artist Keith Haring)
Keith Haring's classic drawings inspire kids to move and make shapes. Find a used copy of the board book Ten. Students can view the images and try out the positions (shapes) in their own bodies, or as a group.
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P.S. Exploring "hands" and "high/low" are also good subjects with the letter H, but I don't have specific book recommendations today.
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I asked several colleagues for their favorite picture books on pathways, and all of us were somewhat stumped on this subject area. To date, there are still few books to be used as springboards when exploring lines and pathways with elementary age students.
Today, I want to highlight the four we came up with. Clearly, there is room for more books on this theme! I recommend checking them out of your local library and purchasing used copies online. My top pick from the list is Little Green.
1. Little Green by Keith Baker (get regular copy, not board book version)
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
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