Y is for Yellow
To begin to explore the color yellow, you can pull out all of your books about colors. Four examples include: My Many Colored Days, Colour, Living Color, and The Rainbow Book. What are our associations with yellow? How can we translate these ideas into movement? Ideally, see if you can pull out 3-5 books on color. Look at the yellow pages, and then explore movement ideas related to these pages. You can even string the 3-5 ideas together.
Lauren Stringer's book Yellow Time is also the perfect story to explore for the letter Y.
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.
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!
Y is for Yoga
If you teach preschoolers, the Kid Moves yoga books are fun inspiration for young ones to try out various yoga poses. The board books include illustrations and joyful photos of young children in motion.
Baron Baptiste's My Daddy is a Pretzel is great to use with preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders alike. It has a cute, simple storyline to help inspire the poses. "Niki says her mommy's a gardener. Sometimes, my daddy's a tree (leading into the tree pose)."
In My Daddy is a Pretzel, there are playful illustrations and clear instructions for parents and teachers new to teaching yoga poses.
Newer children's books on yoga also include the titles Good Morning Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Wake Up Story (Mariam Gates and illustrator and Sarah Jane Hinder) and also ABC Yoga (Christiane Engel).
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