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 Jill Randall
The theme of clouds is a playful starting point for exploring light/heavy, high/low, and actions such as floating, rising, lowering, and spreading.
Depending on the weather, the group could head outside for a few minutes to look at the sky, or you could gather at the window in the room to take a look.
Warming Up: A Poem
I created a poem/rhyme to use as you begin to explore these cloud-inspired movement concepts.
Ask the group to stand up, spread out, and follow along. Consider writing the poem on chart paper and posting it for easy visibility — for you and the other adults in the room.
High, low
Side to side
Reach up high……touch the sky!
Low, high
Side to side
Float down slow-ly……low we go.
Model some movement possibilities to go with the words. Encourage the group to follow your lead. Your voice and timing will also pace the group. Try it a few times, encouraging the adults in the room to join in with reciting the words aloud as everyone moves.
Exploring: Tulle Fabric
If possible, prior to the story time, head to the local craft or fabric store to purchase a few yards of tulle fabric (the fabric commonly used to make tutus). It is light and airy in quality — very cloudlike! Cut the fabric up so that every adult/child pair can have a rectangular piece about 36 inches x 12 inches. Tulle fabric costs about $5/yard, and the yardage is usually quite wide, allowing you to cut it into several pieces. As for colors, consider buying some cloud-inspired colors: white, grey, light blue, and light pink.
Hand out the fabric and give the group a few minutes to play and improvise. How can we make our fabric into dancing clouds? A great music selection is “Alone in Kyoto” by Air (Lost in Translation soundtrack), or “Pink” by the group Moving Clouds.
As the group improvises, you can offer prompts to encourage a variety of movement explorations, including:
- High and low
- Side to side
- Swirling and turning
- Tossing the fabric and floating down to the ground in time with the fabric
- Floating
- Spreading
Reading and Dancing: Little Cloud by Eric Carle
Ask the group to sit back down for the main story for today. Eric Carle, who has written and illustrated so many books, created a playful and imaginative book about clouds entitled Little Cloud.
First read the book from start to finish with the group seated.
Then ask the group to spread out around the space, and re-read the book using the words to prompt movement improvisations. For music, try “Nyatiti” by Andrew Bird or “Alone in Kyoto” from the warm-up earlier.
The first few pages naturally lead to moving and dancing….
“The clouds drifted slowly across the sky. Little Cloud trailed behind.
The clouds pushed upward and away. Little Cloud pushed downward and touched the tops of the houses and trees.”
Then, as Little Cloud changes shapes in the story, encourage the group to change their body shapes or movements to become a flying airplane, a clown, and a shark.
As the story comes to an end, gather the group together in a huddle for
“Then all the clouds changed into one big cloud and rained!”
End the dance with loud, dancing feet and pattering hands on thighs.
Expanding and Reading Further: Clouds, Stars, and the Moon
If you enjoyed the theme of clouds, consider using the following books for more movement explorations with your group:
Sora and the Cloud by Felicia Hoshino
Star Climbing by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
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