Many wonderful, movement inspiring words begin with W: water, waves, winter, and wind.
W IS FOR WATER

I love the theme of water and have explored it in many ways over the past 18 years in dance classes varying from preschool through 7th grade. Students explore the actions of water, the water cycle, forms of water, and more.
This summer at the library, I found the book This is the Rain by Lola M. Schaefer and illustrator Jane Wattenberg. This is the Rain is a cumulative story, like The House That Jack Built, where the story gets built upon.
As for movement inspiration, the book talks about the water cycle and the many forms/states of water. The use of repetition in the text is a great way to explore repetition in your dance class.
I encourage dance teaching artists, classroom teachers, and science teachers working with students in grades K-3 to check out this book. You can purchase used copies on amazon.com.

I have eagerly awaited a copy of this book in our local library system, and I finally checked it out recently. To my delight, Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems, might be one of my new favorite children's poetry books to use in dance classes. The poetry is by Kate Coombs, with illustrations by Meilo So. Both text and paintings are full of magic, whimsy, and imagery to inspire movement with students ages 5-10.

From start to finish, the poems take you on a journey along the shore and in the water. Topics include: sand, tide pools, waves, jellyfish, squid, and coral. The poems lend themselves to a variety of projects for both small groups (solos and duets) and whole group vignettes. You could easily use all or most poems in the book to create a beautiful performance with your class.

Thomas Locker's three picture books - Water Dance, Cloud Dance, and Mountain Dance - are great springboards for group dances. The use of the word "dance" refers to the changing of states, forms, and rises and falls within the natural world.
Water Dance is a book with poetic language. Each page describes a different form of water:
I wind through broad, golden valley
joined by streams,
joined by creeks.
I grow ever wider,
broader and deeper.
I am the river.
W IS FOR WAVES

This week I referenced the wordless book Wave by Suzy Lee. It inspired me to think more about ocean waves and how you can develop several dance lessons on this topic as well. Ocean waves are a creative way to explore up/down, calm/chaotic, forward/back, wavy pathways, and more.
I would recommend buying or borrowing photography books of ocean waves to explore with your students, such as:
Swell: A Year of Waves
Waves
W IS FOR WINTER

I am always searching for books about the seasons. Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold is a great new addition with poems by Joyce Sidman and gorgeous illustrations by Rick Allen.
Sidman writes about the animals of winter, with unique poems about moose, tundra swans, and bees that can inspire dances in your classes. And, the poem "Snowflake Wakes" is a new favorite of mine - filled with moving words such as drifting down, settling, whirling, and "a pinwheel gathering glitter."


Yesterday I got to stop into one of my favorite independent bookstores in the US, The King's English Bookstore in Salt Lake City. The new poetry compilation, Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems, was on display.
The book jumped out at me for various reasons:
- Melissa Sweet's artwork is colorful and whimsical.
- I am always looking for new poems to use within dance classes.
- I love poetry books that are categorized by seasons.
- Upon a quick browse, I knew the content evoked a sense of "magic and whimsy."
Paul B. Janeczko has compiled a strong collection of very short poems. Poets include: Eve Merriam, Robert Frost, Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser, and Joyce Sidman. The brevity of the poems will lead to movement studies as well as a series of vignettes within a larger class, that could be strung together for a performance. Melissa Sweet's illustrations and color scheme can also easily inspire costume selections.

Bay Area educator Michael DeWall has created a beautiful book and CD to explore with children in preschool, kindergarten, first, and second grades. Illustrator Sara Kahn has created color-rich watercolors to accompany the lyrics of the songs. In the back of the book you will find the sheet music for these nine original songs as well as a CD.
The music is definitely "children's music," but I like it a lot. My own children are enjoying listening to it, and I can easily see PreK-2 dance teachers and classroom teachers using it in classes. The music is joyful and a great addition to your music collection about the seasons. The songs explore a variety of themes including: changes, rain, picking berries, and the four seasons.
Check out Seasons: Rhymes in Time here.

Stella Blackstone and Maria Carluccio created a fun, colorful, movement-filled book called Skip through the Seasons. "Jump into January....Fly into February....Race into June...." You can use the text to inspire a dance with students in K-2 classrooms.
W IS FOR WIND
There are numerous books to explore the concept, to inspire students to move "like the wind" - exploring the qualities of lightness and strong force, fast and slow,and over/under/towards/away. In your classes your students can explore being the wind or being moved by the wind.

While You Were Chasing a Hat by Lilian Moore can be an easy introduction to the concept of wind and all that it moves in our world. Students in preschool and kindergarten will identify with the text, and the text can inspire a simple improvisation of being moved "by the wind."

When the Wind Bears Go Dancing by Phoebe Stone is a playful book about the "wind bears in the sky." Again, children ages 4-7 will delight in hearing this story and creating a dance with you in class as you become the magical bears in the sky that make things move.

For students in K-2, there are two books with poetic text that could lead to beautiful group dances with a windy theme. I recommend both Where Does the Wind Blow? (Cindy Rink) and Like a Windy Day (Frank Asch and Devin Asch).
Wind can be a beautiful theme to explore along side, or instead of, your usual theme of the season of fall and leaves.
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