Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 4/21

The Plan

Since I’m on the Caldecott committee, I won’t be writing about the book that I used in this storytime since it is eligible for the award.

Props
Shaker Eggs

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
Reach for the Sky — Alison Faith Levy
Hands Are for Clapping — Jim Gill
The Airplane Song — Laurie Berkner
Go! Go! Go! — Caspar Babypants
Shake & Sing — Little Miss Ann and Amy D
I Can Shake My Shaker Egg — The Learning Groove
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

For our first Shake, Shimmy, & Dance after tax season (when our meeting room is taken over for tax help), this was an excellent turn-out. I wish I could talk about the book I read because it was an excellent introduction to the program.

“Reach for the Sky” was a good warm-up song. I like that it’s instructional and gives the kids an idea on how to start moving. Often times (especially after a re-launch), I have to get everyone comfortable with moving around again and this song worked well. And I went straight into a classic Jim Gill with “Hands Are for Clapping” to keep that momentum going. I pulled out one last favorite: “The Airplane Song” before I segued into some new Shake, Shimmy material. “The Airplane Song” also gives directions in the lyrics and it is beloved by all of my patrons.

“Go! Go! Go!” was our first new song today. It is by a classic Shake, Shimmy artist though! I had to work to get motions for each of the lyrics (For example, I asked the kids to find a friend to dance with during “just met a baby with an entourage”), but I thought the song went over really well. I love the music, because the “go, go, go” part is really easy to dance to.

And then, I introduced Little Miss Ann and Amy D to my storytime audience, with “Shake & Sing”. They had shaker eggs for the song and really just enjoyed using their instruments with some great tunes. I also used “I Can Shake My Shaker Egg” and later had a kiddo come up to tell me that that song “sounds like HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEN”. Needless to say, it was probably my favorite moment of the day.

(For an example of the Powerpoint and handouts that I made for each Shake, Shimmy please visit the original post.)