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  • Creating Your Book Collection on “Color”

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    I love the theme of colors – making a dance related to a particular color and images/feelings, or dancing with a prop of a particular color.

    Here is a great list of books to have on hand for ideas and inspiration. You might not necessarily read all of these books cover to cover, but can easily reference them for dance ideas. Create a "book bin" if you can. (I love having "color" and "alphabet" book bins for preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade dance classes.)

    Books exploring a variety of colors:

    Creature Colors – Andrew Zuckerman

    Pantone: Colors – Pantone

    Color – Ella Doran, David Goodman, and Zoe Miller

    Living Color – Steve Jenkins

    Color Me a Rhyme – Jane Yolen

    Encyclopedia of Rainbows: Our World Organized by Color – Julie Seabrook Ream

    My Many Colored Days – Dr. Seuss with Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

    What Color Makes Your Heart Sing? – Margot Vance-Borland

    The Rainbow Book – Kate Ohrt

    Books on a particular color:

    Green – Laura Vaccaro Seeger

    Water Sings Blue – Kate Coombs and Meilo So

    Yellow Time - Lauren Stringer

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  • Dance Classes with Children Ages 1-5 Years Old

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    As we prepare for the new school year, I asked 20 friends and colleagues to share the favorite moves these days with their children ages 1-5  years old. Which moves do they love to do on their own? How about with an adult? I hope that these examples can offer a word bank and starting off point as you prepare for the new school year. I left the ideas here in the parents' own words, as they beautifully capture the movement concepts.

    Please feel free to add more words here in the comments section below; please tell me the age of your child, and I will add it to the chart.

    Download Favorite Dance Moves with 1-5 Year Olds – Sheet1

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    Related posts from the blog Life as a Modern Dancer:

    Becoming a Teaching Artist: 8 Ideas and Resources for Parent/Child Dance Classes

    Teaching Parent/Child Dance Classes: 5 Questions for April Taylor of "Dance with Me" (SF Bay Area)

    Teaching Parent/Child Dance Classes: 5 Questions for Terry Goetz of the Creative Dance Center in Seattle

    Exploring Parent/Child Dance Classes: 5 Questions for Joni Wilson of Tanner Dance

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  • The Ghosts Go Scaring

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    Looking for a new book to explore around Halloween? I found a great new suggestion if you teach K-2 grade students. The book is The Ghosts Go Scaring by Chrissy Bozik and illustrator Patricia Storms. 

    The ghosts go scaring one by one,

    hurrah, hurrah!

    The ghosts go scaring one by one,

    hurrah, hurrah!

    The ghosts go scaring one by one,

    the little one stops to have some fun.

    And they all go scaring 

    out in the night,

    to cause a big fright.

    Boo! Boo! Boo!

    There are 3 components to the book that will inspire a playful piece of choreography. 

    • The ghosts are coming out 1 by 1, 2 by 2, 3 by 3, etc. This goes up to number 10. This is a great way to explore duets, trios, etc. and to explore the math concept of division! It gives students different parts to play.
    • Second, there is always a solo ghost that pops out and does something – a great opportunity to give motivated students a solo moment in the dance.
    • Last, there is a "chorus" repeated on each page:

                And they all go scaring

                out in the night, 

                to cause a big fright.

                Boo! Boo! Boo!

    The Ghosts Go Scaring is a great new addition to your Halloween-time dance explorations. Check it out!

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  • Now by Antoinette Portis

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    After reading a bookstore's write-up about this book, I recently checked out of the library Now by Antoinette Portis. For those who teach dance to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders — the text is magic and whimsy to inspire a heartfelt dance project involving a variety of actions and playful ideas.

    I would suggest using the whole text and narrating the book for your students as they move.

    The main character in the book highlights her favorite activities and items from moment to moment. From a dance perspective, how do you move and respond with each new idea? I see lots of potential here.

    This is my favorite breeze.

    This is my favorite leaf.

    This is my favorite hole (this one) because it's the one I am digging.

    This is my favorite mud.

    This is my favorite worm.

    That is my favorite cloud because it's the one I am watching.

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    Check it out as you plan for your fall semester! Also check out other titles in the "Magic and Whimsy" series to the right – picture books to use as springboards for group dances and culminating projects.

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  • Flying Frogs and Walking Fish

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    I am a huge Steve Jenkins and Robin Page fan. Their books are whimsical, fact-filled, and many of their books naturally lend themselves to dance activities. Flying Frogs and Walking Fish, published in 2016, has an excellent format to launch a dance project with K-3 students, especially a large class. Narrate the book as the students dance.

    The first page sets the stage for the book:

    Animals walk, leap, climb, and swim. Some roll or turn flips. Others fly or glide, and a few are even jet-propelled. These creatures are found in many shapes and sizes……Have you ever seen….

    Then, the book launches into an A B A B format. One page asks a question, and then the next gives 3 action words. (In classic Jenkins/Page style, every page has illustrations and smaller-type sentences describing the various animals.) To give you a feel for this, here are the first few pages….

    Have you ever seen….

    A Walking Octopus? 

    Marching, strolling, tiptoeing….

    A Leaping Lizard?

    Jumping, pouncing, springing….

    The book inspires solo and group sections, to appeal to different kinds of movers and performers. 46 different creatures are in the book, exploring the key actions of: walking, leaping, swimming, climbing, flying, rolling, and jetting. 

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    Related posts:

    The Letter M (featuring Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page)

    Book List: Animal Inspiration (Including 4 books by Jenkins and Page)

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  • Alphabet Series: The Letter Y

    Y is for Yellow

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    To begin to explore the color yellow, 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 yellow? How can we translate these ideas into movement? Ideally, see if you can pull out 3-5 books on color. Look at the yellow pages, and then explore movement ideas related to these pages. You can even string the 3-5 ideas together.

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    Lauren Stringer's book Yellow Time is also the perfect story to explore for the letter Y. 

    The story of Yellow Time inspires me to give each student some yellow fabric (or scarves) to create some dancing leaves. Students LOVE props and the simple joy of something in their hand to toss, sway, circle, and zigzag. Head to your local fabric store to purchase a few yards of fabric. You can purchase tulle for everyone, or select a variety of fabrics in varying shades of yellow.

    Stringer's story easily leads to a full dance with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The students can be the crows in the trees. They can fly in and then be still (as dance students practice shapes and stillness). The crows can "hide" yellow pieces of fabric behind their backs, and then the leaves begin to dance. Use a music selection from Vivaldi's Four Seasons……

    Crows love yellow time.

    They fill still-leafy trees with their voices announcing it's coming to everyone. 

    Just before yellow time, the air smells different. Like wet mud and dry grass with a sprinkle of sugar.

    Yellow time comes before white time. Every time.

    Everyone is ready. The trees can't hold on forever.

    The sky billows gray with clouds, and then it begins…..Whoosh! Whoosh! WHOOSH!

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    Y is for Yoga

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    If you teach preschoolers, the Kid Moves yoga books are fun inspiration for young ones to try out various yoga poses. The board books include illustrations and joyful photos of young children in motion.

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    Baron Baptiste's My Daddy is a Pretzel is great to use with preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders alike. It has a cute, simple storyline to help inspire the poses. "Niki says her mommy's a gardener. Sometimes, my daddy's a tree (leading into the tree pose)."

    In My Daddy is a Pretzel, there are playful illustrations and clear instructions for parents and teachers new to teaching yoga poses. 

    Newer children's books on yoga also include the titles Good Morning Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Wake Up Story (Mariam Gates and illustrator and Sarah Jane Hinder) and also ABC Yoga (Christiane Engel).

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  • Yellow Time – To Explore Colors, the Season of Fall, and Props

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    Yellow Time by Lauren Stringer is a picture book with numerous possibilities within a dance class for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes. Check out this book if you are interested in exploring: colors, the season of fall, props, or turning a story into a group dance.

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    Yellow! The book is about a tree turning a beautiful yellow. My research has yet to find a book just on the color yellow, so this is a great opportunity to explore this primary color.

    To see other books about colors and rainbows, click here.

    The Season of Fall

    "Fall/autumn" is always a rich theme for dance classes – to explore change and transformation, the actions of falling and floating, and props to represent leaves and various colors.

    To see other books about the seasons, click here.

    Props

    The story of Yellow Time inspires me to give each student some yellow fabric (or scarves) to create some dancing leaves. Students LOVE props and the simple joy of something in their hand to toss, sway, circle, and zigzag. Head to your local fabric store to purchase a few yards of fabric. You can purchase tulle for everyone, or select a variety of fabrics in varying shades of yellow.

    A Story into a Dance

    Lauren Stringer's story easily leads to a full dance with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The students can be the crows in the trees. They can fly in and then be still (as dance students practice shapes and stillness). The crows can "hide" yellow pieces of fabric behind their backs, and then the leaves begin to dance. Use a music selection from Vivaldi's Four Seasons……

    Crows love yellow time.

    They fill still-leafy trees with their voices announcing it's coming to everyone. 

    Just before yellow time, the air smells different. Like wet mud and dry grass with a sprinkle of sugar.

    Yellow time comes before white time. Every time.

    Everyone is ready. The trees can't hold on forever.

    The sky billows gray with clouds, and then it begins…..Whoosh! Whoosh! WHOOSH!

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    Lauren Stringer has also illustrated other books mentioned on this blog:

    Deer Dancer

    When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky

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  • So Many Feet (On the Book to Boogie Blog)

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    Twice a year, I have the fun opportunity to write for the Book to Boogie Blog. This month I write about So Many Feet, which is a great new addition to our book collections about feet and body parts. Use this book with parent/child classes, preschool classes, and kindergarten classes.

    Read the full post here.

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  • Sets of Books, with Lots of Options

    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.

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    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:

    A Nest is Noisy

    An Egg is Quiet

    A Seed is Sleepy

    A Rock is Lively

    A Butterfly is Patient

    A Beetle is Shy

    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.

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    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…..
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    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:

    Over and Under in the Snow

    Over and Under the Pond

    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.

     

  • Flowers are Calling

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    Attention seasoned dance teaching artists! Flowers are Calling, by Rita Gray and illustrator Kenard Pak, offers some magical inspiration — leading towards a group dance with many "parts" for your whole class. Preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders will love the many roles to play as animals, insects, and beautiful flowers. 

    The recurring structure of the book is that a "flower is calling" to an animal. The animal emerges – such as a bear, frog, porcupine, or blue jay – but then something else is really interested in the flower, such as a honeybee. 

    Flowers are calling a little black bear

    No, not a bear! He doesn't care.

    They're calling a butterfly 

    to dip from the air.

    Flowers are calling a wet green frog.

    No, not a frog! She likes her soggy bogy.

    They're calling a bumblebee

    to look near their log.

    Ten different animals/birds appear in the story as well as 9 different bugs and birds that go to the flowers. The book also highlights a variety of flowers in different shapes and sizes.

    Begin your exploration by reading the whole book to the group. Then, try out different body shapes/poses inspired by the numerous flower illustrations.

    Next, you can choreograph the dance with the students having one or more roles in the dance as an animal, insect, or flower. 

    Possible extensions to the lesson include:

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