Book to Boogie: “Puddles!!!”

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 Julie Dietzel-Glair

Five friends are playing outside in the sun until rain clouds try to ruin the day. Monster loves playing in the rain, puddles, and mud, but his four bunny friends aren’t so sure. Everyone goes running for cover when thunder and lightning start.

Puddles!!! by Kevan Atteberry is told predominantly in exclamations providing the opportunity for an enthusiastic read-aloud. The text is sparse and the illustrations are expressive, making this a fun book for toddlers and preschoolers.

Movement Ideas

The book contains only 13 unique words. The whole group can do a different movement for each word. Be sure to print out the words in large font for everyone to see, to help with early literacy skills. Movement ideas include:

• Boom: Loudly stomp your feet.
• Clouds: Softly wave your hands in the air as if they are clouds.
• Crack: Bend your body like a lightning bolt with lots of angles.
• Hello: Wave hello.
• Mud: Pretend your feet are stuck in mud and slowly try to pull them up one at a time.
• Ohhh: Emphasize the “O” of your mouth when you say this word by cupping your hands on either side of your face.
• Puddles: Jump in a pretend puddle.
• Rain: Flutter your fingers like rain falling in front of your body.
• Rainbow: Smile brightly while making a small rainbow shape with your hands.
• Rumble: Shake your whole body.
• Splash: Slap your open hands on the ground as if you are splashing water.
• Squish: Squish your open palms together.
• Sun: Make a circle with your arms over your head.

Create pretend puddles and mud on the floor by using blue and brown carpet squares or paper. You might also choose to use masking tape to create two large circles on the floor. Encourage everyone to jump and play in the puddles and mud with Monster.

After reading the book, play the title track from the movie Singin’ in the Rain so everyone can dance. For extra fun, use a spray bottle of water to create rain as everyone dances.

Be sure to look for Bunnies!!! by the same author/illustrator.

Julie Dietzel-Glair is a freelance writer and library consultant. Before entering her freelance career, she worked in Maryland public libraries for 11 years, first as a children’s librarian and then as an assistant children’s services coordinator. She is the author of Books in Motion: Connecting Preschoolers with Books through Art, Games, Movement, Music, Playacting and Props (ALA Neal-Schuman, 2013), Nonfiction in Motion: Connecting Preschoolers with Nonfiction Books Through Movement (ALA Editions, 2016), and co-author of Get Real with Storytime: 52 Weeks of Early Literacy Programming with Nonfiction and Poetry (Libraries Unlimited, 2015). She is active in the Association for Library Service to Children and Capitol Choices. You can find out more about Julie at http://ift.tt/ZnwCrZ or follow her on Twitter @JulieDGWrites.

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