Skippyjon Jones in a Board Book!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her creative movement classes in New York, and then we share our experiences with the book. Our June book was Skippyjon Jones Shape Up by Judy Schachner. When you're done reading about it here, stop by Maria's Movers to read what she has to say about it!

I was at a Scholastic book fair a few years ago and saw the board book Skippyjon Jones Shape Up on one of the shelves. I was familiar with the Skippyjon Jones picture book series by Judy Schachner so couldn't help but open the board book to see how the mischievous Skippyjon character from the picture books would be portrayed in a book for younger children.

If you aren't familiar with Skippyjon, he's a Siamese cat who thinks he's a chihuahua...or at least that's what he likes to pretend he is! He is spunky and imaginative and is usually up to antics that get him into  trouble. In Skippyjon Jones Shape Up, Skippyjon isn't up to as much trouble as he usually is, but he still shows off his big imagination and his tons and tons of energy!  

Skippyjon Jones stays in shape....

by running in a circle.

Then he salsas on a square, 

teeters on a triangle, 

orbits an oval,

and reaches for the stars.

I ended up buying the board book from the Scholastic book fair where I first saw it, knowing it would be great for a dance class. You can use it to introduce students to different shapes, to new movement words, and to a lovable character they can enjoy in books for years to come.

There are actually two other books in the Skippyjon board book series: Skippyjon Jones 1-2-3 and Skippyjon Jones Up and Down. I haven't read either of the books in their entirety, but I have peeked inside them on Amazon and they both look really cute.

Skippyjon Jones Up and Down looks like it would be great for inspiring movement, too. It's actually a book of opposites, including pairs like back and forth and over and under. It also includes action words like "bounces" and "zooms." I mentioned that Skippyjon is super active, right?

After Maria read Skippyjon Jones Shape Up, I'm sure she had her students be super active, too. Let's see what she had them do here!

Up, Down, and Around in the Garden!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her creative movement classes in New York, and then we both share our experiences with the book. Our April book was Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres and Nadine Bernard Westcott. Read about the book here and then stop by Maria's Movers to see how Maria used the book in her classes!

The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds a couple times this week, the tulips in our front yard are blooming, and the whole neighborhood is starting to smell like mulch -- all signs that it's time for gardening!

I have adored the rhyming picture book Up, Down, and Around since I first read it shortly after it was published in 2007. I don't actually own a copy, but I have read it with my girls many times and I am always happy when I see it on display at the library. 

It's the simple story of a man and two children who plant some vegetable seeds, watch them grow, pick the vegetables, and eat them! The story is told as if this all happens within a day's time, which is of course unrealistic but somehow makes the book especially charming... 

In the dirt we'll dig a row, 

drop some seeds, and watch them grow.

Dirt piles up; seeds go down.

Water splashes around and around.

Corn grows up.

Carrots grow down.

Cucumbers climb around and around.

The structure of the stanzas repeats over and over as readers learn how different garden vegetables grow...or at least in what direction they grow! Peppers, broccoli, and okra are other vegetables that grow up. Potatoes, beets, and onions are others that grow down (under the ground). And pumpkins, green beans, and tomatoes are others that grow around and around (on vines).

This book would be great for teaching preschoolers about the different ways vegetables can grow. And to be honest, I didn't even know that cucumbers and green beans grew on vines until I read this book! 

The extremely cheerful and colorful illustrations also make this book a winner. Illustrator Nadine Bernard Westcott even added a dog, a cat, a rabbit, birds, and lots of insects to the story to make it even more fun. I have to admit I'm not the most enthusiastic of gardeners, but this book makes even me want to get outside and grow some vegetables!

And of course I can't end my post without mentioning how great I think this book would be for a spring or summer dance class for preschoolers. "Up," "down," and "around" are all great words to explore with bodies (or with bodies and props), so I'm excited to see how Maria explored them in her creative movement classes. Click here to find out!

If you're in the mood for more picture books about gardening, Angela from OMazing Kids has posted a list of seed- and garden-themed books to use with children's yoga. Zoe at Playing by the Book has also gathered a list of books about gardening for kids. Happy gardening!

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!

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!