Book to Boogie is a monthly series that pairs picture books with dance and movement activities for preschool story time. The series is curated by Kerry Aradhya of Picture Books & Pirouettes and written by a different guest writer each month. We hope that children’s librarians, as well as classroom teachers and dance educators, will find these activities useful and fun!
by Maria Hanley
Here Are My Hands — written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault with illustrations by Ted Rand — is a very sweet book for babies and toddlers that identifies body parts and helps us come up with ideas on how to use them. I love the book so much that I have incorporated it into my dance and movement classes for 2-year-olds and under, and the students really look forward to the book. What I love the most about it is that it is diverse. The photos show many different types of children from around the world, boys and girls included. I feel as though we need more books like this!
Here are some ideas on how to use the book in your story time with babies and toddlers. The book provides one idea for each body part, but I like to elaborate to make the activities a little more fulfilling.
Hands: Opening and shutting, catching and throwing. (If you have a prop for this part, it would be fun to pull it out here. Balls or scarves work great!)
Feet: Walking, running, jumping, stopping, and going. And dancing (of course)! You could play a little freeze dance here. Also, you could explore toes by counting them and pointing them.
Head: Thinking. You could make a thinking face with toddlers and ask them what they are thinking about. For babies, you could sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
Nose: Smelling and blowing. Breathing, too! You could practice breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. You could also push noses and make noises like BEEP or HONK!
Eyes: What do you see? Colors? Shapes? Friends? You could put on “glasses” or “binoculars” with your hands and look all around!
Ears: I don’t understand what the authors suggest in the book for this one, so I just made up my own. Get very quiet and see what you can hear! Talk on the phone or make animal noises. So fun!
Knees: Bending and falling down. You could bend and straighten knees and also kneel down and stretch!
Neck: Turning right and left. Reaching right and left.
Cheeks: Have grown-ups give their children a kiss!
Teeth: Smiling happy face! Ask the toddlers to name their favorite snacks or foods.
Elbow: Bending and stretching. Ask the toddlers to connect their elbows to their grown-up’s elbows.
Arm: Reaching and swinging. How tall are you with your arms stretching up high?
Chin: Give little chins a tickle!
Skin: For hugs! Ask grown-ups to give hugs to their little ones. You could also ask the little ones to give each other hugs!
I hope you can use this book in your story time. I would love to hear how you identify the body parts and make it fun!
Also, here is a song that goes along with the book!
If you would like other books to use with this one, I recommend the board books Hug by Jez Alborough and Silly Sally by Audrey Wood.
Guest blogger Maria Hanley.
Maria Hanley is an early childhood dance educator in New York City. Maria teaches infant, toddler, and preschool movement and dance all over the city — 26 classes a week, to be exact! When she’s not teaching, she writes on her blog Maria’s Movers and for the Kids Concepts Column at Dance Advantage . On both sites, Maria regularly offers tips and tools for teachers who create with young dancers and movers.
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