The Babies on the Bus Is Great, Great, Great!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Every month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use with her young dance students in New York City. Then I post about the book here, and Maria posts about it on her incredibly resourceful blog Maria's Movers. This month we are exploring The Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz. It's especially great for the toddler and preschool crowd!

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town! I think just about every toddler or preschooler has heard that song, don't you? It's just so fun to sing!

The Babies on the Bus by author/illustrator Karen Katz is a perfect book to go along with the song, which is just begging to be accompanied by movement. The bright and festive illustrations depict nine cute and cuddly multicultural children, a bus driver who looks like a toddler himself, and a brave teacher who is leading the children on a field trip to a local museum. There is a lot of movement in the illustrations, as you might except from a group of youngsters. You can get a feel for some of the movement in this trailer from the publisher...

After hearing the song in my head and seeing the energetic children in the book, I can easily imagine some of the movements that could accompany the song in a creative dance class. I envision children sitting in a straddle position on the floor and moving their legs "open and close" like the doors of the bus. They could tiptoe across the floor when the "driver on the bus says shush, shush, shush." Or they could create a movement sequence and perform it at different speeds when "the motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom."

When snooping around the web, I also found a really neat YouTube video called "The Wheels on the Bus with Miss Melodee." While singing the song -- with a beautiful singing voice I must say! -- Miss Melodee demonstrates how it could also be incorporated into a ballet class. Sometimes she uses classic ballet steps that fit the words perfectly, and other times she changes the words a little to fit a particular step. Here's the video if you want to take a look.  

So, I've been collaborating with Maria enough to know that she probably came up with something even different than I did or Miss Melodee did. What do you think? Let's find out here!

Also, in case you didn't know, I love Karen Katz! If you do, too, you might like to check out two other books I've featured on my blog. One is Nutcracker Twinkle Toes and the other is Subway, which Anastasia Suen wrote and Karen Katz illustrated. Like The Babies on the Bus, both are great for promoting movement with toddlers!

The babies on the bus say, 

"Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus!

The babies on the bus say "Bye-bye, bus!"

Now it's time to go.

Get Ready to Ride the Subway!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

Each month dance educator Maria Hanley and I explore a different picture book for our "Read It. Move It. Share It" collaboration. I recommend a book, Maria incorporates it into her creative movement classes, and we both share our experiences. This month I'm recommending the picture book Subway.

I've traveled on the "BART" in San Francisco,  the "Tube" in London, the "Metro" in Paris, the "Metro" in Washington, DC, and the "Subway" in New York City. Now that I think about it, I've been on quite a few underground railways... and I really like them!

Sometimes I like the bustle of people in the subway station, like on a busy weekday morning or on a Saturday afternoon when the station is bursting with tourists. Other times I enjoy a quiet station, like in the late evenings, when just a few people are milling around. And I always love the whirrr of the train as it finally approaches the station and I know that I am one step closer to my destination.

Washington DC Metro -- near me!

New York City Subway -- near Maria!

In the picture book Subway, author extraordinaire Anastasia Suen uses simple rhyme and repetition to take young readers through a typical trip on the subway, starting with going underground and spinning through a turnstile. The “waiting for the train” part of the journey is absent from the book, but that is probably a good idea since I bet most kids don’t like that part!

The rest of the book is full of the sights, sounds, and movements of the subway and the people you might encounter in a subway station. This, I think, is what makes this book a good choice for young dancers -- and especially so in a place like New York City, where most children have probably ridden the subway many many times. Here are a few snippets that could inspire movement...

away we go

fast, not slow

go, go, go

on the subway

halfway there

we take the stair

step, step, step

to the subway

rock left, rock right

we hang on tight

rock, rock, rock 

in the subway

The recognizable style of illustrator Karen Katz, who throughout the book depicts a cast of characters including a mother and her young daughter, gives Subway a young and playful feel. 

One of my favorite illustrations is of five travelers sitting in a row aboard a subway. Their heads are not visible, so young readers can't help but focus on how the travelers are spending their time. One is reading a book, one is holding a guitar case and reviewing some music, and another is hugging a bag of groceries.

According to her bio at the back of the book, Katz spent many hours on the New York City Subway to find inspiration for the artwork in the book. That sounds like pretty fun research, don’t you think?

For anyone who wants to relive the subway experience or introduce it to a young child, I highly recommend this book. It even comes in a board book format--perfect for traveling with on the subway! And if you would like to incorporate Subway into a creative movement class or other activity, be sure to check out Maria’s ideas here!

This post is also part of this week's Poetry Friday, which is being hosted by Paper Tigers (a wonderful website highlighting multicultural books for kids). Enjoy the poetic offerings!

Nutcracker Twinkle Toes: Short & Sweet

My just-turned four-year-old and my five-year-old have always loved board books by author/illustrator Karen Katz, and so have I. I haven't asked the girls why they like them so much, but one of the reasons I like them is their simplicity. If I had to sum up the style of the books in just three words, I would probably say something along the lines of "short and sweet."

Karen Katz's new touch-and-feel board book, Nutcracker Twinkle Toes, fits this description perfectly--taking the meaning of "sweet" to a whole new level. In less than 100 words of rhyming text, the book leads readers on a Christmas Eve journey to the Land of Sweets, where they meet an assortment of fairies and other characters who all seem to have two things in common: a love of ballet and a love of candy. Luckily they don't have much interest in actually eating the candy, but instead find creative ways to dance with it, admire it, or simply give it away...

The Sugar Plum Fairy loves to twirl and leap.

"This bag of jellybeans is yours to keep."

Although the Sugar Plum Fairy appears in the book, Clara and the Nutcracker are among many other familiar characters who do not. If you're looking for the traditional story of the Nutcracker, this is probably not the book for you. But if you want a unique and very simplified adaptation--with a creative twist--you will find it here. As a side note, this would be a great book to integrate into a creative dance or ballet class for very young children (if you don't mind that it mentions Christmas and none of the other holidays that happen this time of year.)

While we are on the subject of the Nutcracker, my family and I have tickets to see the actual ballet this evening. The Maryland Youth Ballet is doing a full-length production with children in all the lead roles, so I thought it would be perfect for my girls. This will be their first ballet, and it's been quite a few years since I've seen it myself, so I'm getting really excited. We may even have snow for the festive occasion!

Today's Poetry Friday round-up is being held at The Poem Farm. Drop by to find links to lots more posts related to poetry and children's literature.