Dancing Words Blog

Yellow Time - To Explore Colors, the Season of Fall, and Props

Yellow Time by Lauren Stringer is a picture book with numerous possibilities within a dance class for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes. Check out this book if you are interested in exploring: colors, the season of fall, props, or turning a story into a group dance.

Colors

Yellow! The book is about a tree turning a beautiful yellow. My research has yet to find a book just on the color yellow, so this is a great opportunity to explore this primary color.

To see other books about colors and rainbows, click here.

The Season of Fall

"Fall/autumn" is always a rich theme for dance classes - to explore change and transformation, the actions of falling and floating, and props to represent leaves and various colors.

To see other books about the seasons, click here.

Props

The story of Yellow Time inspires me to give each student some yellow fabric (or scarves) to create some dancing leaves. Students LOVE props and the simple joy of something in their hand to toss, sway, circle, and zigzag. Head to your local fabric store to purchase a few yards of fabric. You can purchase tulle for everyone, or select a variety of fabrics in varying shades of yellow.

A Story into a Dance

Lauren Stringer's story easily leads to a full dance with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The students can be the crows in the trees. They can fly in and then be still (as dance students practice shapes and stillness). The crows can "hide" yellow pieces of fabric behind their backs, and then the leaves begin to dance. Use a music selection from Vivaldi's Four Seasons......

Crows love yellow time.

They fill still-leafy trees with their voices announcing it's coming to everyone. 

Just before yellow time, the air smells different. Like wet mud and dry grass with a sprinkle of sugar.

Yellow time comes before white time. Every time.

Everyone is ready. The trees can't hold on forever.

The sky billows gray with clouds, and then it begins.....Whoosh! Whoosh! WHOOSH!

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Lauren Stringer has also illustrated other books mentioned on this blog:

Deer Dancer

When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky

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So Many Feet (On the Book to Boogie Blog)

Twice a year, I have the fun opportunity to write for the Book to Boogie Blog. This month I write about So Many Feet, which is a great new addition to our book collections about feet and body parts. Use this book with parent/child classes, preschool classes, and kindergarten classes.

Read the full post here.

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Sets of Books, with Lots of Options

As dance educators, we have our favorite themes for classes and projects - the seasons, Halloween, locomotor steps, prepositions, and animals (to name a few). This week I was revisiting my bookshelf and thinking about some prolific children's authors, and how these sets of books would be great to explore in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classes. The commonalities between the books will be fun to explore with the kids and a playful link from week to week.

The excellent duo of author Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrator Sylvia Long now have SIX titles in their series. Titles include A Butterfly is Patient and An Egg is Quiet. The complete list is:

A Nest is Noisy

An Egg is Quiet

A Seed is Sleepy

A Rock is Lively

A Butterfly is Patient

A Beetle is Shy

Each book has a similar feel in terms of illustrations and the structure of each page; each page has one large sentence in cursive and then more scientific details in smaller print on each page.

The cursive sentences are written in such a way to inspire movement for each new idea. The books can be used for structured improvisation with the students or as a basic structure to create a dance.

Some text from A Butterfly is Patient:

A butterfly is patient.

A butterfly is creative.

A butterfly is helpful.

A butterfly is protective.

A butterfly is poisonous.

A butterfly is spectacular!

The images and descriptions on each page will provide further inspiration for dancers to express the ideas. See the images, hear the descriptions, and explore in our own bodies.....

In a similar way, author Kate Messner and illustrator Christopher Silas Neal now have 3 titles to their names - which explore up and down and above and below in a garden, a pond, and in snow. The titles are:

Over and Under in the Snow

Over and Under the Pond

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

Prepositions - and relationality - are favorite concepts within creative dance. I love these books to explore high/low, up/down, and over/under. The books explore animals, birds, bugs, and weather. From Over and Under the Pond:

Over the pond, the wind gives us a push and stirs the light-dappled leaves on shore. There on a branch, a new goldfinch teeters, finally ready to fly.

Under the pond, tadpoles are changing, learning to hop. They're losing tails, growing legs, growing up.

Over the pond, there at the shore, tall and silent and still, a great blue heron stares down into the deep. It tenses....takes one long-legged step.....

and strikes! It catches a wiggling, quicksilver minnow from where it was hiding, under the pond.

 

Flowers are Calling

Attention seasoned dance teaching artists! Flowers are Calling, by Rita Gray and illustrator Kenard Pak, offers some magical inspiration --- leading towards a group dance with many "parts" for your whole class. Preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders will love the many roles to play as animals, insects, and beautiful flowers. 

The recurring structure of the book is that a "flower is calling" to an animal. The animal emerges - such as a bear, frog, porcupine, or blue jay - but then something else is really interested in the flower, such as a honeybee. 

Flowers are calling a little black bear

No, not a bear! He doesn't care.

They're calling a butterfly 

to dip from the air.

Flowers are calling a wet green frog.

No, not a frog! She likes her soggy bogy.

They're calling a bumblebee

to look near their log.

Ten different animals/birds appear in the story as well as 9 different bugs and birds that go to the flowers. The book also highlights a variety of flowers in different shapes and sizes.

Begin your exploration by reading the whole book to the group. Then, try out different body shapes/poses inspired by the numerous flower illustrations.

Next, you can choreograph the dance with the students having one or more roles in the dance as an animal, insect, or flower. 

Possible extensions to the lesson include:

• A Garden of Ordinary Miracles by Robert R. Zakanitch (to explore more flowers and their shapes)
• Little Green by Keith Baker (to explore hummingbirds and their pathways/actions)

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The Dance of the Raindrops

One of my favorite themes for creative dance projects - spanning preschool through 6th grade - is the subject of water. I love the actions of water, the states of water, and the water cycle. Watersong by Tim McCanna and illustrator Richard Smythe is a great new addition to my collection, ideal to use with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students.

This picture book is filled with playful words to describe the sounds, speed, and qualities of water. 

Drip drop plip plop

pitter patter pat. 

Twinkle sprinkle splatter splutter

spitter spatter splat.

The text can lead to an improvisational activity or a choreographic project with the group. Explore tempo, level, and quality changes. Use the words and your narration of the story to support the movement phrasing and slow, medium, and fast tempos. Water can move in so many different and playful ways.

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