An Alphabet of Learning, Movement, and Fun!

Time to play and have some fun, 

trying new things one by one.

Are you ready? Are you set? 

Let's explore the alphabet!

As a lover of both writing and movement, I am always looking for children's books that truly integrate the two. The new picture book From A to Z with Energy by Connie Bergstein Dow and Gareth Llewhellin does exactly that, introducing young children to the alphabet while teaching them about the importance of movement and encouraging them to make movement part of their regular routine.

Image courtesy of Free Spirit Publishing

As the book goes through each letter of the alphabet, a group of children experiment with movements ranging from climbing, wading, and hiking to dribbling, kicking, and passing. Interspersed between all the movements are some equally important lessons on healthy living in general.

L is for a healthy lunch

that gives you fuel to grow.

M is for your muscles, 

from your head to your big toe.

As you can tell from the images above, the illustrations by Gareth Llewhellin only add to the exuberance emanating from this book. What a diverse and friendly bunch of children included on each and every page! From camping trips to sled rides to baseball games, the settings that Gareth created only highlight the point that movements can be done everywhere!

It might come as no surprise that the mastermind behind this book, author Connie Bergstein Dow, is both a writer and a mover herself. After receiving an MFA in dance from the University of Michigan, Connie danced professionally in both the United States and South America, and she has also been a dance educator for many years. She has written two books on integrating movement into early childhood classrooms and has published poetry in Highlights High Five and Highlights Hello magazines. From A to Z with Energy is her debut picture book, and what a perfect fit for her background!

Something that sets this book apart from many others is that it includes a six-page guide at the back explaining the physical and social-emotional benefits of movement and providing parents, teachers, and caregivers with a variety of movement activities to supplement those mentioned in the book. Half of the movement activities use prompts from the book, and half can be used alongside the book or independently. All of the activities are designed to use movement to explore the letters of the alphabet.

Now that I know more about Connie, the inspiration for this unique book and guide makes a whole lot of sense! Learn more about Connie, her books, and her ideas at her website, Moving Is Learning!

Connie leading a movement activity during a
recent school visit for From A to Z with Energy.

Guest Post by Nichelle Strzepek: P Is for Pilobolus

I am very excited that Nichelle Strzepek from the extremely popular website Dance Advantage has written the first guest post for Picture Books & Pirouettes. Here she reviews the picture book Pilobolus: The Human Alphabet, created by the famous dance company Pilobolus and by photographer John Kane. Over at Dance Advantage, Nichelle has written another post about the history of this quirky modern dance company. You can read it here.

My three-year-old son has had his entire alphabet down cold since he was about 16 months old. His enthusiasm for identifying and playing with letters has led to both early reading and writing. So, when I finally picked up a copy of Pilobolus: The Human Alphabet a number of months ago, it was with the assumption that the purchase would probably be more for me (a dancer, writer, and picture book enthusiast).

To my surprise (honestly, I shouldn’t have been), the little guy was immediately enthralled by the colorful and nearly wordless hardcover. The book features over 50 photographs by John Kane of the world-famous dance company Pilobolus. Even if you’ve never seen the artistic work of this nearly 40-year-old ensemble, it’s likely you’ve caught at least one of their TV commercials, appearances on late night TV, or perhaps the 2007 Academy Awards. Magical, morphing silhouettes are a Pilobolus calling card.

Though not in shadow, The Human Alphabet artwork is similarly… well, illustrative, with the dancers creating imaginative and sometimes bizarre depictions of animals and objects with nothing but their bodies.

The book begins with a simple instruction: “Here are 26 letters of the alphabet and 26 pictures – all made of people! Can you guess what each picture shows?” I suppose you can predict what follows.

In the corner of each page is a human alphabetical character, which is accompanied by a corresponding picture: dancers, clad in vibrant unitards, render something that starts with the appropriate letter.

Some of my favorites are the four-person Tyrannosaurus Rex, complete with gnashing teeth and two-fingered talons that represent Dinosaur; a human Ladder climbed by an impish dancer dressed in cherry red; and the two-page layout of a particularly puerile Parade.

Not all of the photos are immediately obvious. However, the book’s final pages list the anthropomorphized ABCs with the upper and lower-case printed letter and the word represented by each photo.

Creating body sculptures is the natural next step when exploring this book with children. Right away my son wanted to collaborate to form letters of the alphabet and, though sometimes frustrated by our height difference, he was quite satisfied with the result.

Next steps might include the designing of objects, concepts, or animals, as well as further exploration of Pilobolus and their work, including their use of silhouette. Shadow play is fun and educational. As it happens, my dance studio growing up had quite an active creative movement program for ages 3 through high school (and sometimes beyond). Perhaps an industrious dad helped build the large wooden frame with white fabric we used to explore shape, shadow, and relationships. I recall endless fascination with the possibilities a floodlit screen presented for the telling of both existing and original stories. Parents, what kinds of discoveries might you and your children make with a white bed sheet and a few high-watt lamps?

Nichelle Strzepek is a dance artist, teacher, and writer in Houston, Texas. She's spent over 16 years as a dance instructor, striving to pass on the knowledge and legacy of the art of movement to her students. Since the birth of her son in 2007, she has funneled her enthusiasm for dance training and education into her role as creator, writer, and editor of DanceAdvantage.net. For and about dance students, teachers, and parents, Dance Advantage provides high quality information to supplement students’ in-class learning as well as inspire and support teachers in their work.

Wild About Nature is hosting Nonfiction Monday today. Find out about other educational books for kids there. And thanks again, Nichelle, for your wonderful post!

An 'Alphabet of Dance' From Arabesque to Zouk

Zouk? What's Zouk? If you read the title of this post, you may be wondering. Well, I hadn't heard of zouk either until I read Alphabet of Dance, by Barbie Heit Schwaeber (author) and Damian Ward (illustrator), published in 2010 by Soundprints in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. But here's the answer, straight from the book:  

Z is for Zouk.

A zouk dance is Caribbean.

It's performed in Martinique, 

where this dance that's done by couples 

is quite stylish and chic.

I have to admit that I am so used to reading picture books from trade publishers that I wasn't quite sure what to think of this rhyming educational book at first, as the rhythm and quality of the rhyme were not the best I had seen. But after reading the book several times and exploring the free listen-and-learn download that comes with it, I changed my mind. Since I am a professional science writer, I also reflected on how difficult it can be to write accurately about a new or complex topic. I can't imaging paying attention to that level of accuracy and fitting a whole explanation of a topic into just one short stanza that actually rhymes. So kudos to author Barbie Heit Schwaeber for accomplishing that 26 times in this book!

Alphabet of Dance is very broad in its scope, introducing a wide range of dance concepts, steps, and styles. I personally learned a lot from the book, so I can only guess that younger readers would have a similar experience. Here are a few of the dance styles I learned about:

• Gavotte: A French folk dance popular in the sixteenth century
• Kagura: A Japanese dance thanking the spirits for a good harvest
• Quadrille: The first form of square dancing, originating from France
• Ungkulatem: A Siberian dance in which the dancers perform in a circle
• Xtoles: A Mayan warrior dance praising the god of the sun

Although the book is being marketed for preschoolers, I think it might be more appropriate in some respects for a slightly older bunch who would appreciate the full text, including the glossary at the back of the book. But when you consider that the book comes with a pull-out alphabet poster and a free audio download that includes a fun and bouncy song geared toward little ones, I can see why it is being marketed for ages 3 to 5. Either way, if you put all the components of the book and download together, Alphabet of Dance is quite the educational package.

Soundprints and the Smithsonian Institution actually have a whole series of alphabet picture books for preschoolers, covering bears, dinosaurs, insects, music, sports, and many more topics. You can read about the full series here. 

If you want to read more about nonfiction books for kids, drop by the Nonfiction Monday round-up, held today at Tales from the Rushmore Kid. And finally, thanks to Soundprints for my review copy of Alphabet of Dance.