As dance educators, we have our favorite themes for classes and projects – the seasons, Halloween, locomotor steps, prepositions, and animals (to name a few). This week I was revisiting my bookshelf and thinking about some prolific children's authors, and how these sets of books would be great to explore in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes. The commonalities between the books will be fun to explore with the kids and a playful link from week to week.
The excellent duo of author Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrator Sylvia Long now have SIX titles in their series. Titles include A Butterfly is Patient and An Egg is Quiet. The complete list is:
Each book has a similar feel in terms of illustrations and the structure of each page; each page has one large sentence in cursive and then more scientific details in smaller print on each page.
The cursive sentences are written in such a way to inspire movement for each new idea. The books can be used for structured improvisation with the students or as a basic structure to create a dance.
Some text from A Butterfly is Patient:
A butterfly is patient.
A butterfly is creative.
A butterfly is helpful.
A butterfly is protective.
A butterfly is poisonous.
A butterfly is spectacular!
The images and descriptions on each page will provide further inspiration for dancers to express the ideas. See the images, hear the descriptions, and explore in our own bodies…..
In a similar way, author Kate Messner and illustrator Christopher Silas Neal now have 3 titles to their names – which explore up and down and above and below in a garden, a pond, and in snow. The titles are:
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
Prepositions – and relationality – are favorite concepts within creative dance. I love these books to explore high/low, up/down, and over/under. The books explore animals, birds, bugs, and weather. From Over and Under the Pond:
Over the pond, the wind gives us a push and stirs the light-dappled leaves on shore. There on a branch, a new goldfinch teeters, finally ready to fly.
Under the pond, tadpoles are changing, learning to hop. They're losing tails, growing legs, growing up.
Over the pond, there at the shore, tall and silent and still, a great blue heron stares down into the deep. It tenses….takes one long-legged step…..
and strikes! It catches a wiggling, quicksilver minnow from where it was hiding, under the pond.
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