Circus Movement

When I spotted the hula hoop in the store, I knew I had to get it and create a class around it. This led me on a hunt to find just the right circus book to create the next story dance class. Surprisingly, I had a pretty hard time finding a usable circus book. I went to libraries and books stores, and no one seemed to carry anything I could use. I looked online and saw some books, but did not have the option of picking them up and looking through them to see if they were just right for the class. So I decided to take my chances with what I could see online. I ordered Circus by Lois Ehlert and it worked out great for Story Story Dance.

During the reading of the book the children were elated. They responded with oohs and ahhhs and applause for each page. The colors are vibrant and there are many shapes throughout the text that I could stop and ask, what shape is this? It worked out great. We even acted out eating the snacks during the intermission. The only thing that seemed to be missing from the story was jugglers. Though they did not appear in the story, I took out the scarves at the end of one of the classes and added the juggling element. The children and I threw the scarves back and forth to each other to the music, and it was super fun.

We acted out movements based on the characters and events in the story. Since we became the circus performers, we ended class by attending the "cast party" and free danced for the end of class:

·      World’s Biggest Elephant – Elephant breath

·      Ride on the prancing horse -Gallop

·      Walk the high wire -  Walk across rope, or tape, as the high wire

·      Human Pretzel – Link arms

·      Flaming Hoop/Fearless Leaping Lizards - Jump through the hula hoop.

·      Marching Snakes – Belly crawl “marching”

·      Whistle Twinkle Twinkle – Use this as a rest, sit on bottoms and whistle/hum the tune.

·      Head in a Lion’s Mouth – Act out

·      A Big Hand – Everyone applauds

Nursery Rhyme Yoga

Hey Diddle Diddle

the Cat (pose) and the fiddle,

The Cow (pose) jumped over the (half) Moon (pose).

The little (downward and upward) Dog (pose) laughed to see such sport,

and the dish ran away with the spoon.

And that is just what we did. Using a nursery rhyme book with illustrations, we recited the rhyme. Then, I introduced each pose as we recited the poem. I would ask the group questions like What was that animal that played the fiddle? or What was it that the cow jumped over? Upon their responses, I would introduce the next pose. After learning them all, we recited the rhyme together incorporating the poses.

For our yoga game,  I introduced each group to the yoga cube. Cubes are a great tool for getting little ones to get moving. Each side of the cube can have a different movement, or in this case, yoga pose. Each student is given an opportunity to shake and throw the cube into the center of the circle. That alone gets children moving! Whatever the cube lands on is the movement or pose we all do together.

I love cubes for creative movement, but they are also useful for songs, all about me questions, or simply turn taking skills. I have been decorating cube shaped tissue boxes for mine, however, they are not perfectly cubed. This presents an issue as it tends to favor certain sides over others. In the Nursery Rhyme Yoga class, it meant we did a lot of downward dog!

I think next time I need to rework my cube a little bit before decorating.

Vegetables and a Seed Planting Dance

Part of my goal for these classes is to connect language to movement so that students have a kinetic language learning experience.  Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres was a great catalyst for just that. This story allowed us to explore movement of how things grow up, down, and around. For the reading of the book, I had the children sit on the rug. Because this book has predictable text, the preschool students were able to read along while acting out the movements with their arms. After the book, we played a movement game based on the text.

Taking my cue from the book, I asked students questions like, "If you've tried  corn, stand up!" and continued this with all the vegetables in the story and their corresponding movement, "If you've tried beets, sit down," "If you've tried tomatoes, turn around!" The children seemed to have a lot of fun with this and it was great to see them react to the different foods that were called out.

Years ago in an African dance class in Cambridge, Ma, I learned a seed planting dance.  It is a dance that has stayed with me and has been incorporated into many of my creative movement classes. To transition to the seed planting dance, we discussed how each of the vegetables in the story began as seeds.

We began by making a basket shape with one arm. With the other arm, we acted out removing the seeds and tossing them into the soil. Once we got that movement down, I continued the story of the dance. We carry the babies on our backs while we plant the seeds, so we have to bounce them to keep them happy. We combine the movements and I put on the music. Together, we planted seeds all around the room while bouncing the babies. Boy and girl alike enjoy performing this dance and it is such a pleasure to witness their jubilation! Back on the rug, we put the babies to bed for a nap and continued to free dance; a celebration for planting all the seeds.

To end class we sat on the rug together and I asked each child what was their favorite fruit or vegetable and followed-up with a sticker. This was a nice way to cool down and end class as well as interact one-on-one with the children. At the end of my last class I was able to stay a little longer to converse with some of the children further. It was a wonderful dialogue of children telling me and each other all different kinds of fruits and vegetables they enjoyed, a wonderful way to end the class.

Food, love, and dance.

Barnyard Hoedown

This week we read Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton, a great book gushing with movement words. Because there were so many movement words, I decided to write them all on slips of paper and put them in a jar. After the story, each student had a turn to draw from the jar and tell us what movement to do. I used language straight out of the book like, twirl with the pig, bounce with the bunny, prance with the horses. The student would open the folded paper (a great fine motor challenge for this age group), I would read it aloud, and then the student would demonstrate the move for the group. Then, I would play the ukulele while all the children tried out the movement.

After each student got a turn, we all went down to the hoedown. I encouraged students to incorporate any of the moves we tried, or be any animal from the story, or just dance how they like. We did this for a few minutes until I had all the children hold hands in a big circle. We ended the class by having each student enter the circle and show-off their favorite moves while the rest of the circle clapped and cheered. For the hoedown music, I played Bela Fleck and the Flecktones' Throw down at the Hoedown off their album Left of Cool- how could I not? That quick banjo playing funk style is perfect for these classes!

Drumming, Movement, and Story

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andrea was the perfect lead-in to drumming and dancing this week for Story Story Dance. After our standard warm-up and the story, I brought out the djembe. Students explored various types of movement as I played. I encouraged them to use their whole bodies to move with the drum. In my experience, children have no hang-ups when it comes to embodying the sounds of the drum, they are fearless and go for it.

For the next part of the class, I told the children that now they would be the drummers and the dancers. One by one I introduced them to a variety of percussion instruments and showed them how to play it. This included three homemade shaker drums two frog drums, a rain stick, a gecko clacker, and tone block. The frog drums invited us to have a great discussion about same and different. One of the frogs was small and yellowish, the other was bigger and very dark brown. We also listened closely to the sounds they made to determine if their sounds were the same or different. Then, we counted all the instruments to see how many we had all together.

Percussion Instruments

Music and instruments invite so much opportunity for children to show what they know and make connections across the curriculum.

For the drumming dance party, I broke the class up in half by inviting students up to play the instruments while the others danced, then switched. Once the drummers had their instruments, we reviewed two hand signals - start and stop. If you have never been a part of a drum circle, I cannot in words describe the excitement that occurs when all the drummers are playing and then all stop together. There is something magical in that moment when everyone stops at the same time. My little drummers got to experience this yesterday and the magic was definitely there.

I ended class by giving everyone a turn to come up to the djembe and play it.  This is always a fun activity because everyone gets to have their moment to hear themselves on the drum. Some children hit as hard as they can, some play a little quiet, some give it one big whack then walk away, while others take a moment to find a rhythm.

So much fun and so much learning!

Animal Masks and Movement

After two months on hiatus from foot surgery, I am finally back in the classroom! This week, I kicked off Story Story Dance with animal masks and the book Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae. This book introduces many different animals, but I focused on the ones that I actually had masks for. This worked out great because if I had done all the animals, this would have been an hour long class. As it was, this class went over my allotted half-hour slot and took about forty-five minutes. Luckily, the teachers were great and happy for the extended class considering the kiddos would have shortened outside time due to the heat. Sometimes things just work out.

The masks were very simple, made out of animal face paper plates from the super market and tongue depressors for holding. I got this idea from a yoga teacher I worked with who used the plates in her children's yoga class to help children embody animal poses.

Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae

For this class, I read the short poems about each animal from the story and students explored smaller movements in their sitting positions.  After the story, we created a big circle with movement space in the center. Every student was given a mask and each animal had their own music. I used short musical compositions from a pre-ballet music selection. In partners, students came to the center of the circle and explored the larger animal movement.

As always, the children surprise me. The children seemed to love taking their masks and scaring the children in the outer circle and the children in the outer circle seemed to love getting scared! After every set of animals had a turn in the center, we went to the animal dance party, where all the animals dance together and the children become any animal they want to be.

In the beginning of the story, the narrator introduces the animals as waking up in the jungle and the end of the story, the animals go to sleep. So of course we ended class with all the animals falling asleep in the jungle. The fake snoring was hilarious! I traded masks for stickers and ended class. It's great to be back!

Shaker Bottles and Math Foundations

Over the last few weeks, I have been saving and collecting various sizes and shapes of water bottles. I made enough for every student to have one during the latest story dance class. First we read an alphabet book that also features colors. We reviewed the colors before I handed out the shaker bottles. 

With shaker bottles in hand, I led the kiddos through a movement exploration exercise that explored location words - we shook the bottles in front, above, behind, to the side, down low,  and in between our legs! Then, of course, we got to free dance with them. Not only was this a fun, kinetic exploration on spatial awareness, but these words and concepts are also foundational math skills. 

We continued with our math skills at the end of class through bottle color-grouping and matching exercises. I encouraged students to find other students who's bottles were a similar color to their own bottle. For our cool down, I laid out different color felt squares. Then I called on students one at a time to bring up their bottle and put it on the corresponding color square (apparently I need more red bottles!). This part of the class also elicited a great discussion with the children about colors. For example, water in one bottle was a little bit blue and a little bit green - which square should it go on?

Young children are often mesmerized by the swirling objects inside the bottle. The ones I made also include letters of the alphabet, words, and fake fruit! Because the bottles also have some weight to them, the children are getting a good work-out, keeping their bodies healthy and strong while dancing, moving, playing, and learning.

 Making Shaker Bottles!

First, save a bunch of water bottles.

Then, make a trip to the local craft store for supplies - don't forget the food coloring and corn syrup from the grocers.

Then, go to town!

Creative Movement with Fabric

If there is anything I have learned from running creative movement classes with children it's that they LOVE FABRIC!

This week I taught the story dance class using Down by the Cool of the Pool by Tony Mitton. For the main-movement-event I brought a very light weight, vibrant blue fabric that has a little stretch to it. We used it in similar ways to using a parachute. We gathered in a circle, first sitting, and all grabbed on to the material. Then we became the cool pool and shook the fabric to make waves. We all stood up and the children naturally clustered under the fabric full of giggles. (It never fails, fabric on top of kids = happy laughing children. Every time.) We lifted the fabric up over our heads giving us a nice elongated stretch. Then we made made big waves by making the fabric go up and down.

(actual fabric!)

In the story, the different animals teach each other their dances and they are excited to learn from each other. For the next part of the story dance class, each student had a turn to do their favorite dance/movement under the fabric; this could be their favorite animal movement from the story, or their own and the other students try to copy. This was a blast!

For our last dance, I put on music for the children to freestyle to while I walked around waving the fabric over them as they danced. I have done this in other classes with other kinds of fabric and the children seem to love getting caught by the fabric, individually, as a group, or in small groups. As a teacher of young children, I highly recommend the use of fabric in your classroom. If you are not sure what to do with it, don't worry, the children will have a million ideas for you!

Nursery Rhymes Starring Lambs and Sheep, or Props are Helpful When Teaching

During the month of March, I introduced the lamb (who grows up to be a sheep) for the toddler and preschool story dance classes.  Using a book with great illustrations, I read Mary Had a Little Lamb (we also sang). The lamb grows-up to be a sheep and we read Little Bo Peep, then we sang and read Baa Baa Black Sheep. We also changed the color of the sheep a few times.

After reading Mary Had a Little Lamb, we played follow-the-leader. I gave one tot the stuffed animal and she became the leader and we all followed her around the room. We played this until everyone got a turn. I followed the leader while tapping a beat on the tambourine.

The Redstone School, now in Sudbury, Massachusetts, is believed to be the schoolhouse mentioned in the nursery rhyme.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb

The stuffed animal as a turn-taking prompt has been working very well for the toddlers and preschoolers. And since sharing is not a toddler's greatest skill, I am so glad when I see them hug and pass.

We also acted out Little Bo peep, which the little ones really seemed to get a kick out of. I pretended to be Little Bo Peep, distraught over losing all my sheep, while the children hide (pretended to hide). Then, they all come back wagging their tales behind them. They wanted to play this several times, some children took turns as Bo Peep. Toddlers and preschoolers enjoyed the dramatic action!

In general, props have a wonderful role in the creative movement class, and other expressive arts, as they invite imagination, extension, and discovery of movement; a theme I have seen repeated over and over. Visual and kinetic learners may especially appreciate when a prop appears in the learning space.

Brown Bear: The Ambassador of Hello and Goodbye Hugs

The experience of music, movement, and play is important at every stage of development, and even more important to those individuals for whom development has been interrupted.  Children of neglect and trauma often share in common the uncertainty of adults abruptly leaving their lives. For instance, these children may have witnessed parents being taken away by police, or remember being taken from their home by a social worker, not knowing when they would next see their parents. For the young child, these events are typically unplanned and they do not always get to say goodbye to a loved one, nor get a hug goodbye.

My story dance class reaches out to children who have lived through these types of disruptions, sometimes more than once. A special element that has evolved in these groups is the role of Brown Bear, who has become the Ambassador for Hello and Goodbye Hugs. His role has developed over time and he now has an important place in my story dance classes.

At the beginning of each class, I remind the students that Brown Bear is soooo forgetful and that we all must tell him our names - again! I tell Brown Bear my name and pass him around. Each student tells Brown Bear their name and gives him a squeeze. The act of saying their names aloud has it's own empowering affect. Several of the children have delayed speech and finding their voice to say their own name is, for some, difficult. Often, the other children will not give the child holding Brown Bear the chance to say their own name, they just start shouting it (no matter how many reminders they get).  Still, some of these more quiet children have taken the opportunity to say their names with Brown Bear in their arms. Some do not say their own name, but they will hug him, and pass him to a friend. At the end of class, I bring back Brown Bear who travels to each student for a goodbye hug. This has been an beautiful event to witness and it is an essential part of class now.

Perhaps amidst the fun of singing, dancing, and reading stories, Brown Bear is helping these little ones gain wholeness and healing by giving them the chance to say hello and goodbye, on their terms. Perhaps. Or maybe it's just nice to hug a soft cuddly bear. I may never know the long term benefits of Brown Bear's role in their lives, but I do know that each child beams with joy when they hold him, and that is reason enough to bring him every week.

The Red-Pink Dilemma

Before I offer scarves to any of the preschoolers, or even the older ones who I do these classes with, I like to read the story Color Dance by Ann Jonas.  Students preschool through kindergarten are captivated when I read this. When the story is over, I tell them that we will do our own color dance.

I pass out the scarves and regardless of what age I am working with, they get excited. To lead up to our color dance party, I play I Have a Little Scarf from Moving with Mozart by Georgian Stewart - a great guided music experience I recommend for any early learning classroom. I begin with this track because it introduces students to the different ways they can move with their scarf - like a ship sailing by, an enchanted curtain, leaves falling from a tree. The favorite is the shooting star, when we throw our scarves up in the air and try to catch them when they fall.

After our scarf exploration, it is time for the scarf dance party where students get to dance however they want with their scarves. The little ones love when I come-up to them during the dance party and cover them with a scarf, or let a scarf fall on them. The giggles abound!

But here is the problem I have with the book Color Dance. The entire thing is based on the primary colors and how they mix together to make new colors, but all the reds are pink! Before I read the first word of the story - which is the word red next to a girl dancing with a large scarf of the same color -  I ask the children, what color is this?

They all have the same answer, Pink! 

Then I show them real red in the form of a felt square, to make up for the red missing in the publication. The publishers of this book really messed up here, didn't they read what they were printing? Now when I read this book, I show all the colors with matching felt squares. I am thinking about painting over all the pink scarves that are supposed to be red with red paint so I don't have to keep going through this. Though despite this major glaring flaw, I continue to use the book because it really is a great a book for a creative movement class.  It would be great however to see this book reprinted so that the red actually looks red.

Toddlers - They Tell Me What to Do

I do not sweat more than when leading my toddler classes. Wait a minute, I do not lead anything, they run the class! I love it though. Last week when I played the ukulele for a freeze dance, the tots took over by telling me to "freeze" and "go," and again this week. It is quite adorable.

I have a huge tote bag that I bring with me that has all my teaching props ready to go - scarves, a few instruments, fabric, fabric, fabric, a stuffed bear, a magic wand, all the necessary things.  The tots found the bag and just started pulling things out, "Ok, its scarf dancing time!" I don't fight it, I roll with it. This is how I have figured out how to teach toddlers creative movement. They tell me what to, I just make suggestions now and then.

For the story part, I read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. When we got to the cat, I showed them how to stretch like the cat. One of my little ones went into a downward dog with one foot bent in the air, "It's yoga," he said in his little toddler voice. The cuteness is unbearable at times.

I have learned to love teaching toddlers creative movement and music, though my first year doing these classes for this age, I felt, was very challenging. Now, I really look forward to it. The difference with this group is that I really have to let go of trying to get them to do what I planned or want them to do. I bring the music, the instruments, the props, and we play. I don't even do things in order anymore. You want to start with the ukulele, sure. You want me to cover you in fabric, ok. You want to jump up and down for awhile, let's do that.

My classes are, usually, very structured. The toddlers, apparently, are my kryptonite because all structure goes out the window. And it works. I think part of the success of these groups are the excellent teachers in the classroom. They participate and enjoy the children as much as I do. With a supportive group of teachers around, every class is a success and everyone has fun.

Creative Movement with the Toddlers

Yesterday I started Story Story Dance with two toddler classes. I find this age the most challenging because, at this age, they really do not care one bit what your agenda or schedule may be and their moods change ever so abruptly. So for me, it is especially rewarding when I can get toddlers engaged in these classes.

We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. I got this book and a stuffed animal brown bear on a recent visit to Kohl's. These and other children's books and toys are being sold there as part of the Kohl's Cares program which donates money from these special purchases for children's health and education. I read the story to the tots and for each animal, I asked the children what sound the animal makes and either offered, or let them come up with, a movement for each. After the story, I passed around the bear; each tot had a turn to hold the bear while we asked, Brown bear brown bear what do you see? The child with the bear got to tell us what to do.

This worked pretty good with the first group; apparently, all animals like to jump up and down, even fish! One student started braying like a donkey. So I said, "Oh! Donkey's like to kick," and they all started kicking their feet - it was too adorable! And when I asked them to wag their tails for the dog - again, so stinking cute! The teacher and I had to turn away with the biggest smiles because we were so overcome with the cuteness of it all. After reading the story to the second group, they just wanted the bear, forget acting anything out. So, I put on the dance music and passed the bear around.

Every small success is a big success with the toddlers. 




 

New Classes of Cubs

Today was my first visit with new preschool and pre-k students! I love the first class with a new group, although it can be a little nerve racking not knowing their names or the temperaments before going into it.  However, the excitement in their eyes and their willingness to play and dance settles all that.

We did the warm-up, we read the polar bear story, we played the polar bear cube game, we did our polar bear jumps, and had a dance party; it's amazing how much can fit into 30 minutes!

One of the polar bear cub movements on the cube is "curl." The photograph is of two polar bear cubs snuggled up in the snow. So, to end the cube game, I had all the kids curl up like the cubs - then I covered them in the "snow and ice" which, of course, was yards and yards of white and blue tulle- I could've just covered the kids in fabric for the whole half hour and they probably would've been just as happy!

actual image from cube!

Anyway that you can work fabric into your class - go for it! Floors do get slippery with fabric though, so be warned, but the fabric has a way of igniting imaginations through a tactile experience that young children love.

I love what I do!

Polar Bear Cubs

For today's story dance class, we explored polar bear movement using fabric and a movement cube. We did our usual warm-up and then, instead of passing out the story squares, I laid out blue and white fabric and tulle. The children snuggled up on the "snow and ice" as we read My Little Polar Bear by Claudia Rueda. The story is simple and sweet. It is guided by the cub's curiosity to his mother about being a polar bear and we get to find out what polar bears like to do.

These same and other cub movements are reflected on my polar bear movement cube. This was constructed from a cube shaped tissue box, construction paper, and six polar bear movements I got from the Clifford magazine by Scholastic. I covered the tissue box with blue construction paper, then put a polar bear cub movement photograph with simple text, on each side. Each movement is labeled with a number and a sentence with a key word in it.

We reviewed each of the six movements then started the game. Each student took a turn to roll the cube into the "snow and ice," which I placed in the center of our circle. We acted out the movements each person rolled. Then I removed the fabric and let students explore these movements in free space as I narrated. I ended this guided imagery with everyone "curled" up (movement #6) and covered them with the fabric. This was their delight! Children love fabric, it can become anything. The children enjoyed playing under the fabric and acting like polar bear cubs in the snow. It was great.

Next, students lined-up for polar bear jumps. The white fabric acted as the snow pile, students jumped over it one at a time to the Nutcracker while I hit the tambourine.

Today's book invited a great movement class. I was looking for a winter or snow themed book when I came across the polar bear book and it all came together. I remembered I had a polar bear movement cube and when I couldn't find it - I made another one!

Movement cubes are great classroom tools. You can make them about anything and connect language and movement to pretty much any theme, you just need to get a little creative.

"Stretch" with the Preschoolers

This week's story dance class with the preschoolers was super fun. We read Stretch by Doreen Cronin and Scott Menchin (also in book recommendations!).  After our warm-up and snake breaths we get ready for the story. I pass out the story squares and as I do, the children name all the colors. Then I review the book cover with them. The first story dance group made spontaneous predictions about what animals they thought would be in the story. It was great. Sadly, the crocodile one child predicted did not appear in the story, but he did not seem disappointed by the giraffe, whale, leopard, and kitten who did.

A page from "Stretch."

After the story, I put on some mid-tempo music and led the group in a story square stretch. I ask them to hold the squares with two hands and stretch the square up, to each side, lunging, we stretched them out front and behind, we shined our shoes with them. Next, I collected the squares and asked the children to sit down for I was bringing out my faithful sidekick - Mr.Tambourine. I went around the circle and had each student tap Mr. Tambourine with their toes. This was a really cute exercise that they all seemed to get a kick out of- ha! I think some of them may have thought the notion of being asked to kick the tambourine with their feet was absolutely absurd.  It is a funny idea considering if they were to go around kicking tambourines, that would definitely not be ok.

It is ok, however, in a structured class as this. The tambourine provided them a focal point to aim, stretch, and tap. The tambourine was a target, and when they toe-tapped the target, they created a really cool sound. This invites an auditory experience along with the kinetic and I like multi-model, or inter-model, experiences in the learning process. This type of exercise is beneficial for developing self-awareness by exploring their bodies in space - My body ends here, CLANG! (or whatever sound it makes). It also helps to develop self-awareness through force; when the student kicks lightly, one kind of sound occurs. When they kick hard, another and more startling sound occurs. This is very valuable information for the developing brain.

My tambourine is also super durable and I use it regularly when teaching dance, movement, and drama, so I wasn't worried about them kicking it.


For our dance party, I passed out the dance scarves and encouraged students to use the scarves in different ways, incorporate some of the stretch  moves we had previously done, and - the best part - throw the scarves up in the air! For this part of class, I put on Groove Armada's If Everybody Looked the Same from the album Vertigo. This song is really up-beat and has a funky groove that they can all get down to. The only lyric in the song is, "If everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other." I believe this is a great message in general and totally coincides with my teaching philosophies of acceptance/tolerance/and celebrating diversity. From my years of doing this, I have also learned that little kids really love disco. This song is not disco necessarily, but this song has similar elements that the kids like to boogie down to. After all, we can't listen to Stayin' Alive every week!

"Peaceful Piggies" Yoga Characters

"Peaceful Piggy" Flann

 The kindergarten and pre-k classes did in fact enjoy the masks. They were a little too big, but we rolled with it. The kids thought they were silly and fun. I would read them a page from the book Peaceful Piggy Yoga by Kerry Lee Maclean (also in book recommendations!), then talk about the peaceful piggy in the illustration. I brought different props to go along with each piggy character. Two students would come up and become those "peaceful piggies" and demonstrate the pose for the class. The format worked really great, especially for the smaller pre-k group. For the larger kindergarten class,  we only had time for half of the book; I will do the second half of the book during our next class.

I brought back the ukulele and did Yoga Freeze Dance for our dance party. I encouraged the students to incorporate movements of the different characters and poses we had explored in the book. The end of class dance party varies each week. Sometimes we freestyle, sometimes we freeze dance with special poses, sometimes we play Magic Soup. The rules of the dance party may change, but I always leave time for the dance party; it wouldn't be story story dance without it!

I have not yet done peaceful piggies with the preschoolers. I think the format will have to be a little different and more contained. I think I will leave out the masks, but use the character props, and have everyone pretend to be peaceful piggies. I am pretty sure this group will be able to get into piggy character without the assistance of a mask. I'm still exploring ideas for this one.

I am also looking forward to the second half of Peaceful Piggies with the pre-k and kindergarten. They all seemed to enjoy taking turns being different characters and getting-up in front of the group.

"Peaceful Piggy" Jack in Tree Pose

The Hip-Hop Dancing Firefighter

Its days like these that I feel so grateful to do what I do. I get to witness and experience these great moments and when they happen, all I can do is smile and fill-up with joy because I was there.

Today's story dance class was with the preschoolers. I read Eric Carle's From Head to Toe (also in book recommendations) As I read along, the little ones tried out the different moves in the story. After the story, I invited each student up one at at time. They could turn into anything they wanted and had to share a movement for the class. Then I would introduce them in the style of the book, "This is Princess Samantha and she can twirl. Can you?" Then everyone would twirl. Essentially, it is a mirroring game and they were super cute doing it. We had three firefighters, but one of the fire fighters was a hip-hopping firefighter (this was painfully cute, this kid was getting down!). We also had a student who was a  pumpkin that flapped up and down and made a silly noise, and there was also a very deliberate kitty cat that was more like a robot - this kid was committed to his sound and movement like I'd never seen. After everyone got a turn, I put on Groove Armada, and we had a dance party. I invited the kids to incorporate moves from the book and moves of their friends.

It was a pretty great class for everyone. The children's responses certainly had the teachers in smiles and all the kids moving. It was a joy!

Thanks for Thanksgiving

This week's preschool story dance class was about being thankful, but it almost wasn't. I had actually planned to do "Peaceful Piggies" since we did not have class last week. Then I realized that this was their last class with me before the holiday. I did not have a thanksgiving book in my stash, so I decided to visit Ms. Melanie. I knew she would have some good books on this very theme, and she did! On her book shelf was Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes.

I am thankful for Ms. Melanie!

Each story dance class begins with the snake breath. This helps get the kids to quiet their bodies while being active and engaged. Letting out the S sound requires them to exert some energy and there is only so loud one can get while making it. It also catches on quickly. If the group is getting too noisy or losing focus, I start the S sound and everyone joins-in pretty quickly.  The "Snake Breath" is new to my classroom management repertoire and is proving to be a reliable tool.

Then I introduced Ms. Melanie's book. The author talks about being thankful from a child's perspective. She describes being thankful for swings, slides, play-dates, kittens, puppies, school, mommies, and daddies. When we read each page, I asked the students to do a "thumbs-up" if they were thankful for those things too. This book was nice for the preschoolers because the sentences were not too long and the language was accessible to their lives. The illustrations were detailed and colorful, filling-up every page.

After the story,  I used a ball from the classroom to lead a sharing circle. I make eye contact with each student and ask them the same question. Today's question was what are you thankful for? Whoever I roll the ball to answers the question. I heard lots of mommies and daddies, brothers and sisters, nannies and poppies and, of course, toys! Since this is story dance class, after each student answered the question, they got a turn in the middle to dance on the leaves to the tambourine. Oh yes - the author was also thankful for fall leaves, so that worked out nice.

I transitioned the children to the yoga dance party by revisiting yoga poses from previous classes. I had displayed a few yoga cards for visual assistance. A very adorable moment occurred when one of the little one's took notice of the cards and totally lit-up. I could not help but smile at his reaction. He got very excited and started recalling other poses from the book we had read last time.  After reviewing the cards and poses, I called them-up to turn-in their story squares by color. I also turned each color group into either "mountains" "trees" "triangles" and "twisty pretzels." Then we had a yoga dance party.

I am thankful for my colleagues, my students, my family, and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Integrating "Book Time" with At-Risk Girls

I have a great group of girls for the hour long story dance class.

Last week was our first class together and it went great. For the cool-down at the very end of class, we sat in a circle, and I asked the group of inner city 5-8 year old girls to each tell me one of their favorite books or stories. We went around the circle, the answers were...concerning.

The first response was Justin Bieber. (pause). Do you have a book about Justin Bieber? Yes. (ok well, at least she's talking about a book). Most of the girls when asked this question gave answers that seemed odd,  I think there were more movie references than anything. One girl did have a book of all the princesses. Another girl said that the book we read that day for our class (Dance with Me by Charles R. Smith Jr. - also in book recommendations) was her favorite. I told her and the other girls that any of the books we read in class, they can find at the library (which you can almost see from our building). There was a little bit of an excited buzz that went around the circle.

I wonder what kind of exposure these girls are getting to good books? Who models good reading habits for them? Have they ever even been to the library?

Based on the answers of the previous week, I decided to incorporate "book time" into this week's class. I brought a stack of age appropriate books that I have in my collection and put them out. I was going to save this as an end of class activity, but they were so excited to see the books, they just picked them up and started looking at them, reading them, and asking me and the staff person to read. So instead, I set the timer for five minutes, and told them when the timer goes off, we will put the books away and start our warm-up.

I love that a major part of my job is to get kids excited about reading.

It was working with at-risk girls like these and recognizing the need for more exposure and opportunities with literacy that got me to start incorporating more and more literacy into my dance classes. Now it has become a class of its own and the format seems to work really well. I like, and I believe the kids also like, having fun kinetic experiences with language and literacy. There is also music, and instruments that come out sometimes, we write words on the board, and look at the pictures in the book, sometimes the girls read the story along with me. Story Story Dance! has all the learning styles covered.

Book time is now an official part of this class for my girls group. I am so glad I decided to bring all the other books. It was a last minute on a whim thought. The books were already in the backseat of my car not doing anything, so I grabbed a bunch and brought them in with me.