Read It. Move It. Share It. is a collaboration with Kerry from Picture Books and Pirouettes. Once a month Kerry selects a book and I use it in my creative movement classes. Then I write a post on what I did with the book and how I used it with the kids in hopes of giving you some ideas to use in your classes! Here is the May book. Enjoy!
Like A Windy Day was a big hit with me and the kids! I used it with my 5 year olds and I thought it was perfect for this age group. There are so many movement words and ideas in this book, it’s almost too much for one dance or lesson. I gave all the students scarves and we used the scarves as a way to enhance our dance. Here are some of the kids (and my) favorite pages from the book to dance!
To start the dance I asked the students to make the same shape as the girl on the front cover. (pictured above) It was really neat to see. I need to do more make a shape like this picture. 🙂
Windmills! We made our arms straights and spun around and around. Moving one arm up and keeping the other one down. We also used our legs. That was tricky, but fun! After seeing this windmill dance I think I will incorporate it into my warm-up from now on.
Zooming down hillsides.  You know how much kids love to run? The fact that I told them they could was really freeing. I gave them the image of the wind pushing them from behind. I could really see how they were thinking and running down a sloped hill. All we needed was a sprinkler! 😉
Snap wet sheets! Snap is a really fun word to explore. We used the scarves at first and snapped them at different speeds. Then we explored the word snap with our body parts. It was interesting and really opened them up to new movement and new ideas.
Falling leaves from the trees. We explored throwing our scarves in the air and catching them in different ways. Using the low level. Spinning around and then catching it. Jumping. Throwing it behind us. It really reminded me of  the fall and playing in the leaves.
There are many other pages in the book that lend to great movement explorations. These were just a few of my favorites. I love to use books in class because it gives other creative ideas and opens up to visuals and new words. Make sure you check Kerry’s post about this book here.
Have you ever used this book in creative movement class? Would you ever try it? I highly recommend it!
Comments
Hi, Maria. I’m so glad the book worked so well. You thought of so many great ideas that I never would have thought of. I was wondering if you would use scarves, though. I know kids always like those. Thanks again for a great collaboration for Read It. Move It. Share It!
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Great blog. I teach a ballet for mommy and me dance classes and regular pre ballet classes in SC. I love using books during class time. Barefoot Book publishers has several music and movement stories and cds that I use in class–Animal Boogie and If you’re happy and You know It. I look forward to reading your book and activity suggestions. I also check out tons from the library. I find that reading a story at the end of class helps the little ones gear up for leaving. They never want to go:)
Jennifer, Thank you for your comment! Books are my favorite to use, even with older kids. It gives so much more depth to class and to the child’s dancing. I’m so glad you visited. I checked out your blog too! We should talk parent/toddler sometime! I love to teach it! 🙂
After reading your post, I purchased this book for my own children at home, and will definitely be using it with my kindergarten dance class. I think it is going to be a lot of fun, esp since the weather is much more fall-like right now! I was wondering, though, do you have any good music suggestions to go along with the movements? I have a ton of music, but am always on the lookout for more 🙂 Thanks!