Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 10/20

The Plan

Book
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
This is the book that basically inspired the whole interactive book portion before the group begins to dance along to the music. Body identification, movement, animals, Carle’s illustrations, large trim-size…what more could you ask for?

Props
Wrist Ribbons!

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
Wake Up, Shake Up — Rolie Polie Guacamole
Dance Like There’s Music In Your Pants — Sara Lovell
Spin Again — Jim Gill
Rocketship Run — Laurie Berkner
A, B, C, D, E — Justin Roberts
Falling — Joanie Leeds
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

My first four songs set an energetic mood for the rest of the program. Wake Up, Shake Up has a great beat to it and I asked the kiddos to shake up their bodies as we started our dancing. This led to lots of interesting hair as they all shook their heads at some point. I followed this up with another free dance, Dance Like There’s Music In Your Pants, and I actually think that was poor planning on my part. They needed some instruction before free dance again.

Luckily, both Spin Again and Rocketship Run have excellent instructions in the lyrics and we were able to follow along for the next two songs.

For the wrist ribbons today, I wanted the kids to use them to draw letters or shapes in the air during A, B, C, D, E. And I got to include some great caregiver tips about letter and shape identification being a precursor to reading. And then we practiced taking our ribbons off our wrists and letting them fall to the ground with the seasonally appropriate Falling. (At least, it was perfect for Chicago in October.)

Definitely a bumble this edition, but that’s 100% on me. See? You can still make mistakes even after a ton of storytimes!

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