Playful Dance Chants for Moving and Grooving!

One of the reasons I started my blog more than a decade ago was to bring together picture book creators, teachers, librarians, and dance educators who all believe in the power of movement as much as I do. The recent picture book Tap and Rap, Move and Groove by author Connie Bergstein Dow and illustrator Debbie Palen is the perfect example of a book that embodies this sentiment. 

With the holiday season officially in full swing, Tap and Rap, Move and Groove would make an excellent gift for parents, librarians, or early childhood educators -- both those who regularly incorporate movement into their story times or lesson plans and those who would like to incorporate movement but may be a little hesitant. Here are some reasons I think it's great for both groups...

• There's a lot of variety in the 14 dance chants included in the book, so you're sure to find one that fits into any theme you want to explore through movement. Animals, feelings, nature, counting -- even feet! Here's a peek at the first page of a two-page chant about all the ways you can dance with your feet... 

• If you're in a pinch and need a last-minute creative movement prompt, look no further! Keep this book handy for any extra time you might have at the end of a dance class or school day, especially if the kids have been sitting for a long time and just need to get their wiggles out!  
• The back matter is AMAZING if you're looking for some practical support in using the book. It includes guidelines for leading each chant, suggestions for creating boundaries to maintain control in a room full of kinetic kiddos, modifications to make the chants accessible for children with a range of needs and learning styles, and reminders of why creative movement is so beneficial to young children.
• This peppy, brightly colored book also comes with a free digital download full of ideas for enhancing the chants with music, props, and variations to keep children engaged during many repeated readings!

If you haven't guessed, author Connie Bergstein Dow is also an experienced dance educator. Learn more about her at Moving Is Learning or from my review of her debut picture book From A to Z with Energy! But before you go, as we metaphorically wave goodbye, here is the ending of a chant from Tap and Rap, Move and Groove called "Waving Rap"... 

Wave your arms, way up high.

Reach your fingers to the sky.

Step and clap, step and clap, 

As we do our waving rap!

Jump and hop, twist and bop. 

Wave everything...and now we stop!

Book and Boogie in 2015!

Hope it's not too late in the month for an enthusiastic…..Happy New Year! Thanks for hanging in here with me, as I know my posts are sometimes few and far between. I'm happy to report, though, that I already have a couple fun posts lined up for the coming months. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, I wanted to highlight Book to Boogie -- a feature on The Library as Incubator Project website that I help curate. It's a monthly series that pairs picture books with dance and movement activities for preschool story time. The series already includes 19 posts, which means 19 great ideas for bringing movement into libraries, classrooms, dance studios, and homes!

I always try to feature the latest Book to Boogie posts in my Read & Romp Roundups, but you can also follow the series at The Library as Incubator Project itself. The mission of this wonderful project is "to promote and facilitate creative collaboration between libraries and artists of all types, and to advocate for libraries as incubators of the arts." This mission really comes out in Book to Boogie and the many other features on the site.

To entice you even more, here is a list of the talented guest bloggers who make the Book to Boogie series possible. Click on their names, and you'll see just how passionate they all are about integrating movement and the arts. Wow!

Jayne Gammons (kindergarten teacher)
Julie Dietzel-Glair (freelance writer and library consultant)
Maria Hanley (early childhood dance educator)
Amy Musser (children's librarian)

Jill Homan Randall (modern dancer and teaching artist)

Liz Vacco (dance, yoga, theater, and early childhood educator)

Read & Romp Roundup: May/June 2014

Welcome to the first bimonthly Read & Romp Roundup. Thanks to those of you who submitted posts this time around. I also happened to stumble across a few additional posts related to picture books and dance, so I've included those as well. Hope you enjoy the roundup!

Danielle at This Picture Book Life shares a post about the picture book Bonjour Camille, which will be released in August from Chronicle Books. Dressed in a tutu and a top hat, Camille is a little girl with a whole lot of things to do! Check out Danielle's post to learn more about these "things" and to see several bold and energetic illustrations from the book.

Atelierstorytime shares a blog post by Anna Forlati -- the illustrator of the Italian picture book Yoga Piccolo Piccolo. Translated as "Small Small Yoga," Yoga Piccolo Picollo may not be available in an English version, but the gorgeous illustrations in this blog post will speak to everyone!

At Maria's Movers, Maria explores the wordless picture book Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle, which won a Caldecott Honor in 2014. Read her post to see how she used the book in a workshop for 6-year-olds about creating new dances!

Maria was also featured in the June Book to Boogie post at the Library as Incubator Project, where she shared movement ideas to go with the picture book Here Are My Hands. A month earlier, the May Book to Boogie post featured movement ideas to go with the picture book SPLASH! by Ann Jonas.

At the Dirigible Plum, Elizabeth reviews the nonfiction picture book Dancing to Freedom: The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer. The book tells the story of Li Cunxin, who grew up in rural China and was selected as a boy to move to Beijing to train as a ballet dancer. Interestingly, the book is written by the dancer himself. The illustrations by Anne Spudvilas, some of which you can see in Elizabeth's post, help tell his emotional story.

And last but not least, Reading Today Online shares a fun interview with Connie Schofield-Morrison and Frank Morrison -- the husband-and-wife team who created the new picture book I Got the Rhythm. They actually interview each other about creating the book. You don't want to miss it!

Read & Romp Roundup: January 2014

Here's the January Read & Romp Roundup for your weekend reading…especially those of you who are stuck inside because of the rain or snow. There are some real goodies in this roundup, so enjoy!

At OMazing Kids, Angela shares two new additions to her collection of snow-themed picture books. Ladybug Girl and the Big Snow is the newest book in the popular Ladybug Girl series by David Soman and Jacky Davis. And One-Dog Sleigh, by Mary Casanova and Ard Hoyt, is a fun rhyming book about a whole bunch of animals squeezing into a single sleigh. Read Angela's post for her ideas on which yoga poses go best with the books!

To keep with the winter theme, Yoga & Creative Movement with Elly provides some yoga-inspired winter activities to keep your little ones busy if they are cooped up inside. Her post includes a short poem about a melting snowman, which would be great inspiration for some creative movement!

Reshama at Stacking Books posted about the new picture book Penguin Cha-Cha by author and illustrator Kristi Valiant. The book's main character, Julia, is sure she saw the penguins at the zoo dancing, but they just don't seem to want to do it again…at least not while anyone is watching. Read Reshama's post to hear more about how Julia tries to get the penguins to dance and to see some gorgeous illustrations from the book!

I'm so happy that Marta from A Bilingual Baby joined us again, this time with a post -- in both English and Spanish -- about a unique picture book version of The Nutcracker. Published by Usborne Children's Books with illustrations by Anna Luraschi, this book is recommended for preschool-age children, who will especially love pressing the buttons on the right-hand side of the book to hear different Nutcracker tunes by Tchaikovsky!

Dance educator Maria Hanley wrote two blog posts related to picture books and creative movement in January. Her contribution to the Book to Boogie series for the Library as Incubator Project discusses how to incorporate movement into story time with the classic picture book The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. On her own blog, Maria's Movers, Maria shares movement ideas to go with the rhyming picture book Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows and Kurt Cyrus.

And last but not least, Renee at Mother Daughter Book Reviews is signing bloggers up for a blog tour in March 2014 for the new picture book Good Night, Animal World. The book is the newest in a series of Kids Yoga Stories written by yoga instructor Giselle Shardlow with illustrations by Emily Gedzyk. Sign up for the tour if you want to join the fun!

Are You Ready to Hibernate?

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
I'm so happy that dance educator Maria Hanley from Maria's Movers and I are renewing our collaboration in 2014. I'm not yet sure how often we'll be posting together, but when we do, we'll be sharing our experiences with picture books I recommend for Maria to use in her creative movement classes in New York. Our January book is Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows and Kurt Cyrus!

With so many parts of the country being pounded by snow and surrounded by cold this winter, hibernation is starting to sound like a really good idea! Hibernation Station, written by Michelle Meadows with illustrations by Kurt Cyrus, provides plenty of opportunities for little ones to explore the concept of hibernation and pretend to be animals gathering food and preparing for their own winter's naps.

I actually haven't read too many picture books about hibernation, but this one has a twist that I can't imagine has been done before. Instead of searching for places to hibernate outside, the animals in this book -- already dressed in their finest cold-weather pajamas -- all board a special "hibernation" train that will carry them through the forest during the winter months…

Fuzzy slippers, warm pajamas.

Forest babies and their mamas…

show up early to the station!

Time for winter hibernation.

According to the illustrations, but not mentioned in the text, each car of the train is made out of a log that is full of compartments for different types of animals -- squirrels, frogs, raccoons, skunks, and more. But before the animals get comfortable in their new winter homes, there are a few problems they must overcome...

"I cannot sleep!" a black bear roars.

"My roommate rolls around and snores!"

A groundhog cries, "This hole's too tight."

"It's dark in here. I need more light."

As the train rolls through the forest, the illustrations show the season changing from fall to winter. By the end of the book, the snow is really coming down! And, as you might have guessed, the animals do solve their problems and finally get some shut-eye.

In a nutshell, if you make a book full of perfect rhymes, cute furry animals in pajamas, and a train -- like this one -- then it's bound to put smiles on the faces of little ones. Let's see what Maria came up with in the dance studio to make those smiles even bigger! You can read her ideas here.

Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Today's post is part of my ongoing collaboration with dance educator Maria Hanley from Maria's Movers. Each month I recommend a book for Maria to use in her creative movement classes, and then we both share out experiences with the book. This month we're exploring Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp! by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe.

Look at the Tyrannosaurus on that cover! A little scary, don't you think? But don't worry...once you open the book, he's not that scary anymore. In fact, he's pretty harmless, even in the presence of other dinosaurs. Mostly, this Tyrannosaurus just wants to stomp!

Mighty Tyrranosaurus

loved stomp, stomp, stomping, 

gigantic legs striding, enormous jaws opening, 

jagged teeth waiting for guzzle, guzzling!

So stomp, Tyrannosaurus, stomp!

As the book continues, we meet an immense Diplodocus, a crested Pteranodon, a fierce Velociraptor, and seven other prehistoric creatures. Like the Tyrranosaurus, each of the creatures has a signature move -- the Diplodocus a swish, the Pteranodon a glide, the Velociraptor a hunt -- plus additional moves that would hopefully inspire young children to come up with some moves of their own.

Although the Tyrranosaurus is mostly absent when we meet these other creatures, he does appear on the page devoted to a tough Ankylosaurus. The signature move of the Ankylosaurus is a whack, and poor Tyrannosaurus is the recipient of one of those whacks! He doesn't look like he minds, though, and this action adds a splash of humor to the already upbeat book. We then see the Tyrannosaurus one more time -- at the end of the book -- when, still stomping, he leads the whole pack of creatures in a dinosaur parade.

Girls and boys -- especially those who love to move -- will appreciate the many movement words in the text. I bet they'll also enjoy the bright illustrations, which take up every corner of every page and, in doing so, exaggerate the exuberance that the text already portrays. Let's see if Maria agrees! You can check out her post here.

The Croaky Pokey: A Leap Day Dance!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Dance educator Maria Hanley and I are exploring the picture book The Croaky Pokey this month. In the book, author and illustrator Ethan Long turns the Hokey Pokey into a perfect song for a creative movement class. Thank you, Holiday House, for sending me a review copy of this creative and entertaining book!

A few weeks ago I blogged about the picture book Leap Back Home to Me, which is a sweet and gentle story about a frog who loves to leap. Well, since today's actually Leap Day, I'm going to blog about frogs again. But this time the frogs aren't so sweet and gentle. They're bouncy and boisterous...and they're hungry!

The Croaky Pokey, written and illustrated by Ethan Long, takes the standard Hokey Pokey and adds a clever twist--just enough to make the song seem like it's new. Set in a pond, the book follows a group of frogs as they shake their body parts one at a time (just like in the traditional song) and then hop around in pursuit of a dragonfly that they just can't seem to catch...

Put your right hand in, 

Put your right hand out, 

Put your right hand in, 

And wave it all about, 

Hop the Croaky Pokey 

As we chase a fly around, 

Right in the froggy's mouth!

WHAP!

As the book progresses, the illustrations show that the frogs aren't the only ones inhabiting the pond. And they aren't the only ones trying to catch the dragonfly, either. SNAP! go the jaws of an alligator. And SNAP! goes the beak of a bird who is poking his head out of the pond. A little turtle and a few of the frogs are also playing trombones on the edge of the pond, adding an extra vibe of rhythm and fun to the book.

Ethan Long's illustrations in this book make me laugh every time I see them. As the long tongues of more and more frogs just miss catching the dragonfly--WHAP!--the tongues become more prominent in the illustrations. The already bulging eyes of the frogs also seem to get bigger and bigger over time.

Amid the chaos, the carefree dragonfly is buzzing merrily along, even singing with the trombone music on some pages, completely unphased by his surroundings...well, at least until he is surprised at the end of the book. I won't tell you the surprise, but I will tell you that none of the frogs ever do catch the fly. Instead, their tongues end up tangled around each other, and around the bird and alligator, in a hilarious mess on the last few pages. Definitely a funny sight!

Since the Hokey Pokey is a familiar song to many preschoolers, I thought it would be relatively easy for Maria to incorporate it into her classes. With all the waving of body parts and all the hopping, there are also plenty of opportunities for movement. And I think the song lends itself very well to adaptation. For instance, it would be fun for kids to explore animals other than frogs, and thus explore movement other than hopping.

Are you ready to see how Maria used the book with her kids? Let's find out here!

Happy 50th Anniversary to The Snowy Day!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

For January, I decided to recommend The Snowy Day for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the book, which is being honored in the media, through a national museum tour, and even in a new children's musical. Let's figure out how to celebrate it in dance class, too! 

Last week, the American Library Association announced the winners of some of the most prestigious annual awards in children's literature. Among them was the Randolph Caldecott Medal, which was awarded to A Ball for Daisy as the most distinguished American picture book of 2011. If you click here, you can see a full list of Caldecott winners and honor books from 1938 until today, including the 1963 winner The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

This groundbreaking book was the first picture book to include an African American child as a main character, paving the way for the multicultural environment we more often see in picture books today. The book also stands out for its simple yet magical illustrations. The main character Peter is dressed in a bright red snow suit and iconic red snow cap through most of the book as he spends an adventurous day outside in the newly fallen snow. 

And what, you might be asking, makes this a good book for a children's dance class? Well, here is one of my favorite passages from the book, which convinced me that Peter possesses many of the same qualities that a dancer does. In fact, I bet Peter would have loved to take Maria's creative movement classes! 

Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow. He walked with this toes pointing out like this. He walked with his toes pointing in, like that. Then he dragged his feel s-l-o-w-l-y to make tracks. And he found something sticking out of the snow that made a new track.

First of all, Peter is curious. He's curious to see what kind of tracks he can make in the snow with his feet. And later in the book, he's curious to see what happens when he smacks a snow-covered tree with a stick he finds on the ground. PLOP! It lands on his head! Peter is also creative. He not only thinks up lots of neat ways to move his feet through the snow but also pretends he's a mountain climber when he encounters a huge mound of snow later in the book.

And, like all passionate dancers, Peter loves to move! From the passage above, you know that he likes to move his feet in different directions and in different tempos. But he also likes to flap his arms, like when he makes snow angels. And he likes to move his whole body, like when he climbs up the snow mound and then slides all the way to the bottom, hands in the air and snow flying behind him. 

I'm sure Peter thought of lots of other things to do in the snow, too, since he was outside all day. And this makes me wonder what ideas Maria came up with to encourage movement in her creative dance classes. Did her students move like Peter moves in the book, or did Peter inspire them to move in other ways? You can find out here. 

After you read Maria's post, if you still want to know more about The Snowy Day and how it is being celebrated this year, here are some articles and sites worth checking out...

• More background about the book and its lasting impact on children's literature can be found in The Washington Post and The New York Times. 

• Publisher Viking Children's Books has issued a special 50th anniversary edition of the book, including eight pages of bonus material. Read more about this special edition and about a museum tour honoring the book here. 

• Adventure Theatre, a popular children's theatre based outside of Washington, DC, recently premiered a musical based on the book. The show has been well received, and it is running until the middle of February 2012. Learn more here.   

• If you want to know more about Ezra Jack Keats, the many books he created during his lifetime, and all the good that has come out of his life and his work, visit the beautiful website of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.  

Boing.... Boing.... Boing....

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

This month I'm recommending the picture book Bounce for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. This post is also part of a December of Doreen, in which I'm featuring three movement-themed books by author Doreen Cronin and illustrator Scott Menchin. After reading the post, bounce on over to Maria's blog to see how she used the book in her classes.

Although Bounce was not the final book published in the movement-based series I'm highlighting on my blog this month, I've saved it for last because it holds a special place in my heart.

In the summer of 2007, when my family was in the midst of moving from California to the Washington, DC area, we spent some time at my mom's house in Florida. And while we were there, we of course visited the local bookstore. My older daughter was two and a half at the time, and my younger daughter was several months shy of one. My mom and I together bought several books for the girls that day, but one of the only ones I specifically remember picking out is Bounce. I know we had lots of board books and a few picture books already, but I think of that moment as the start of the hand-picked collection of picture books that we truly cherish now as a family.

As a mother and as a lover of movement, it was hard to resist the bouncy rhythm of the text and the antics of the fun-loving dog who bounces in all sorts of ways--ranging from pretty normal to fairly outlandish--throughout the book. Here's one of my favorite stanzas...

It's hard to bounce in roller skates. 

It's fun to bounce on poles. 

If hippos bounced from place to place, 

imagine all the holes!

I just love that part about the hippos, and I love the illustration that goes with it. There is a huge hippo that covers a large portion of a two-page spread, and it's obvious that he is bouncing. Many large holes, made by his feet, are scattered about the pages. And in the right-hand corner of the spread, our fun-loving dog friend is peeking just his head and two front paws out of the hole. Adorable. 

Just as the book provides plenty of entertaining ways to bounce, it also cautions readers--in a truly delightful way--about some of the ways they probably shouldn't be bouncing. The illustration that makes me laugh the most shows the dog diving headfirst into a large pile of fruit, with the text mentioning that if you must bounce in the market, then it's probably best not to bounce in the fruits. I absolutely love the ending of the book, too. I won't give away the illustration on the final spread, but the combination of the art and the following text always gives me a chuckle...

A bounce can turn into a bump, 
a bump into a fall. 
But it's better to have bounced and bumped...
than never to have bounced at all!

So, I don't know about you, but I am excited to see how Maria has decided to use this book in her creative movement classes. Little ones are naturally good bouncers, and I'm sure Maria has thought up some innovate ways to take advantage of their innate ability! You can read her post here.

In case this is the first post you've read in my December of Doreen series, you can read more about the other posts here. I'll be ending the month with an interview with Doreen Cronin herself. Stay tuned!

Sing, Dance and Create with the Shape Song!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her children's dance classes in New York City. This month I chose a new title from Barefoot Books called The Shape Song Swingalong. I hope you're ready for some sing-along swing-along fun!

Quite a while ago, Maria mentioned to me that she was interested in exploring shapes with her little ones, so I've been on the lookout for some good picture books about shapes. I had already discovered a few treasures at our local library and was about to recommend one when I came across The Shape Song Swingalong. 

I may still recommend the other book a little later, but for now The Shape Song Swingalong was just too much fun to pass up. Based on a song written and sung by SteveSongs, this book is all about shapes--specifically lines, circles, rectangles, and triangles--and the many fun things you can create with them.

Along with the words to the song, the bright and childlike illustrations by David Sim show how you can use the shapes to make houses, pencils, animals, sand castles, and just about anything else you’d like to make. And one of the reasons I really like this book is that it incorporates so many of the arts, including dance, into this concept.

I have a shape collection and I use it to create

Anything I want to see or be or do or make.

Is it work? Is it play? Is it music? Is it art?

With my shape collection all I need to do is start...

Many of the illustrations also show four multicultural children, each one of them representing a different shape. One of my favorite spreads shows the kids making their respective shapes with their arms. It reminds me of how fun it is to make the letters Y-M-C-A over your head to the classic Village People song of the same name. Similarly, I think kids would enjoy making lines, circles, rectangles, and triangles when they hear The Shape Song Swingalong. 

Even more fun would be making shapes to the actual shape song, which comes as a CD with the book. Wait until you hear its catchy refrain, which is so hard to get out of your head once you’ve heard it!

If you've read this far, and perhaps are bouncing in your chair or singing the refrain of the song yourself, then we have a giveaway for you! Barefoot Books is kindly giving away a copy of The Shape Song Swingalong and accompanying CD to one lucky reader of my blog or Maria's blog. 

If you win the book, Maria and I will want to know how you end up using it with the little ones in your life--be that in a dance class, in a traditional school setting, at home, or somewhere else. We really want this giveaway to help promote movement and creativity, so you'll have to write us back with the details of your book-related activities. 

So, if you're still reading this post and would love a copy of the book, there are three ways you can enter the giveaway. If you do one of them, you will be entered once. If you do two, you will be entered twice. And if you do all three, you will have three chances to win:

• Leave a comment on this post letting me know what your favorite type of creating is. Mine is creating stories with words, but I also love creating arts & crafts with my kids.
• Leave a comment on Maria's post letting her know what your favorite shape is and why. Also check out her post to see how she used the book in her classes!
• Like Barefoot Books on Facebook and then let either me or Maria know in a separate comment.

Leave your comments by 11:59 pm EST on December 7, 2011. Maria and I will then pool the responses and randomly pick a winner. If you'd like to learn more about the book in the meantime, you can check out this interview with SteveSongs via the Barefoot Books blog. Have fun!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Liz Vacco, the winner of our Shape Song Swingalong giveaway! Liz is a performer, choreographer, and dance educator in Los Angeles who will be using the book with some of her students soon. We look forward to hearing how it goes! 

I Love to Dance!

November is Picture Book Idea Month (better known around the blogosphere as PiBoIdMo), and this is the first year I'm participating. Like the other 300 or so writers and illustrators taking part, I've been busy trying to come up with 30 new picture book ideas before the month is over. Luckily, I've been finding tons of inspiration on Writing for Kids (the official PiBoIdMo blog) and on a new website celebrating November as the first annual International Picture Book Month. But I'm still on the lookout for additional inspiration wherever I can find it, be that in dreams, in everyday life, or in picture books themselves...

Given this context, November seems the perfect time to talk about the picture book I Love to Dance, by Australian author and illustrator Anna Walker. The words in the book are few (only 88 of them) and the illustrations quite simple, but the book resonates with me strongly and inspires me deeply.

My six-year-old thinks the main character of the book, Ollie, is a zebra. My four-year-old thinks he's a dog. I'm not quite sure what I think he is, but perhaps this is one of the reasons I love the book so much. When I read it, I pretty much forget about...or don't even care...whether Ollie is a zebra, a dog, or some other creature. I only care that he loves to dance, and I feel happy for him that he dances so easily and with such abandon.

Ollie loves to dance loudly, and to dance quietly. He loves to dance like jelly. He loves to jump, roll, and flip. And he loves to hop! However, I think it is really Anna Walker's illustrations that let readers get to know Ollie and how creative he can be. When he jumps, rolls, and flips, the illustrations show him doing it all inside of a cardboard box. And when he hops, he doesn't hop the way you might expect he would. He does it upside down--in a one-arm handstand!

I love that Ollie thinks up new and exciting ways to perform classic movements...not unlike how picture book writers and illustrators think up fresh ideas to make stories that have been told before seem new.

Picture books and the ideas behind them can inspire. They can touch the hearts of readers and make them feel connected to the characters in a book. That's how I feel about Ollie, and that's what makes me want to read other books about him. For now, though, I'm going to take the inspiration that Ollie has already given me and try to come up with some more picture book ideas of my own!

I Love to Dance is just one book in a series about Ollie and the many things he loves. He loves to sing, he loves birthdays, he loves vacations, and he loves the special people in his life. You can see a partial list of the books in the series (those available in the United States) here. 

Frolic in the Leaves with Mouse and Minka

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

Each month I recommend a picture book for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. October's book is Mouse's First Fall, which I thought of immediately when Maria told me she had some leaf props she wanted to use with her students. After reading about the book here, head over to Maria's blog to see what she came up with!

One cool fall day...

Mouse and Minka came out to play!

In some parts of the United States, the weather has been quite wintery over the last few days. I'm holding out hope, though, that the fall weather will soon return...

Fall was one of my favorite seasons when I was a little girl, and I especially enjoyed raking the leaves with my brothers and then enthusiastically jumping into the huge piles we had created in the lawn. As an adult, I still enjoy the fall. Although I now avoid raking leaves and sadly no longer think about jumping into them, I still love to look at them--the beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and red--and the way they flutter to the ground after a cool breeze blows just hard enough to release them from their branches.  

In Mouse's First Fall, written by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Buket Erdogan, Mouse and Minka enjoy the fall both in the ways I did as a child and in the ways I do today. Judging by the cute blue shirt he is wearing, Mouse appears to be a young male mouse. Minka, in her pink shirt, looks and sounds like a female mouse. It isn't clear if she is Mouse's mother, his older sister, or another friend or relative, but she does take on a very motherly role, helping Mouse discover all the joys of fall.

Tumbling and twirling, fall leaves fell all around. 

"Look at all the colors" said Minka.

Mouse saw red leaves and yellow leaves and 

orange leaves and brown leaves.

As the book progresses, Minka points out that leaves come in different shapes and then suggests running through them, piling them up, and eventually jumping in them. Spurred on by these suggestions, Mouse experiences the leaves fully. He notes their shapes, runs and skips through them, kicks and swishes them, and even counts them as he piles them up. 

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. It looks like they might be made from acrylic paints, but I'm not sure. The mice are drawn simply and cheerfully, and the deep colors of the artwork envelop each page of the book entirely. There isn't one ounce of white anywhere, except for a few small clouds popping out from the bluish purple sky on a few of the pages. I also love how the leaves are gigantic in comparison to the mice, which brings out the fall colors even more. 

Overall, Mouse's First Fall is charming, playful, and educational all at the same time. And the colors, shapes, numbers, and movement words in the book provide great fodder for a creative movement class. I hope Maria thinks so, too. You can read her post about the book here.

Hip-hip-hooray for fall!

We're Dancing on a Bear Hunt!

Read It. Move It. Share It.

Each month I recommend a picture book for Maria Hanley--dance educator extraordinaire in New York City--to incorporate into her creative movement classes. Our September pick is We're Going on a Bear Hunt, written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. When you're done reading more about the book, don't forget to check out Maria's blog to see how she used it in her classes. 

I still remember sitting in a big circle at summer camp, clapping one hand and then the other against my thighs and stamping my feet against the floor as our fearless leader took us on an adventurous bear hunt when I was a kid. Through fields of grass, thick mud, and dark forests we went, searching far and wide for that one elusive bear. Does this sound familiar to you, too?

Well, when I saw the picture book We're Going on a Bear Hunt for the first time earlier this year, this childhood memory came flooding back...not so much because of the actions we did during the bear hunt, but because of how exhilarating it was to play the game. And even though we were sitting in one place, it still included a lot of movement, which I'm sure was another reason I had so much fun with it.

I can't remember the exact words to the game I played, and I'm sure there are many versions. Here's a very expressive Michael Rosen reciting his version--the version that he created for the book. You can see from the video that the text of the book is full of rhythm and fun sounds that could easily inspire movement, as they do for Rosen himself.

Although the words to the book are what inspire the movement for me, the book wouldn't be what it is without the beautiful drawings of Helen Oxenbury. She was able to depict the characters in the book any which way she wanted, and she chose to draw them as five members of a family. I recently found out that the five characters are actually siblings, but many readers think they are a father and his four children. Either way, I think this depiction is especially nice for young children, who will likely be "reading" this book alongside other family members of their own.

However you interpret the illustrations, what's especially unique about them is that they alternate between black-and-white ones and full-color ones. Oxenbury uses black and white for the pages with the refrain (which, for the most part, is every other spread). This is for the moments when the family has yet to find out what the next obstacle on their bear hunt will be. Then she uses color for the more active pages, when the family trudges through grass, a river, mud, and even a snowstorm.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt was first published in 1989, which makes it about 22 years old today. Because this was after my summer camp days, I wonder how old the bear game actually is and what its origins are. Hmmm. Regardless, I'm very happy that it was adapted into a book so that many more kids could experience the exhilaration of those summer bear hunts I used to go on. And, I'm happy that it was adapted into a book so that dance educators could use it, too. You can see how Maria used it in her classes here.

Before I go, I also wanted to let you know about an extremely charming video interview with Helen Oxenbury over at Reading Rockets. It includes a heartwarming story about how Oxenbury's father encouraged her to go to art school and how she approached illustrating several of her most popular books, including We're Going on a Bear Hunt. I highly recommend it.

And, finally, here are a couple of lesson plans I found to go along with the book...in case you teach young children or want to incorporate some of the plans into your reading time at home.

• These teaching materials from the San Diego County Office of Education, created as part of the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project, include a variety of activities to help students learn more about bears.
• And here are some lesson plans from Scholastic that incorporate elements of the story into dramatic play and other preschool activities. 

This post is also part of Read-Aloud Thursday, which is a weekly opportunity for bloggers to share some of their favorite family-friendly read-aloud books. It's hosted over at Hope Is the Word, where teacher turned stay-at-home mom Amy blogs about home education, parenting, and books. Check it out!

Board Books Use Animals to Inspire Movement

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

This month I mixed it up a little. I recommended not one but TWO books for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. After reading this post to learn more about the books, head over to Maria's blog to see how she used them in her classes. And thanks to publisher Blue Apple Books for supplying review copies of both books!

When I saw the new board books SWING! Like a Monkey and WIGGLE! Like an Octopus, I knew right away that I wanted to highlight them on my blog. Because many dance educators use animals to inspire movement in their classes, I thought the books would be perfect tools to assist them.

SWING! focuses on zoo animals and WIGGLE! on ocean animals, and both are filled with movement words that even the youngest dancers will probably know. Prance like a lion, anyone? Gallop like a zebra? Or, since it's still summer here in the states and some other parts of the world, maybe you would prefer to swim like a dolphin? Or waddle like a penguin? Author Harriet Ziefert includes lots of phrases like these throughout the 12 pages and about 100 words of text in each of the two books.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed that the meter of the rhyme is not always as smooth as I would have liked, and some of the couplets don't rhyme perfectly. But, nonetheless, I think the books would be great to use in a class of young dancers...probably best for two-year-olds and three-year-olds I would say.

The illustrations by Simms Taback (who by the way has won a Caldecott Medal and a Caldecott Honor for previous works) are simple and youthful as well. All of the animals are drawn with thick black lines filled in with solid colors. The backgrounds of the book, too, are incredibly simple. In some ways, the illustrations remind me of the pages of a coloring book. Even the colors that Taback uses are typical colors you would find in a big box of crayons.

And finally, I love that the covers of the books actually "move" when you tilt them. You can probably tell from the cover images in this post that the monkey really swings and the octopus really wiggles its arms. What toddler or preschooler wouldn't want to explore a book like that, especially in a dance class! Let's see how Maria and her students explored the book here.