Poem Dance

Directions

Choose a favorite poem and read it aloud. Select a few of the ideas, words, or images in the poem and express them in movement with your child. Some ideas will suggest how to move and others will suggest a mood, feeling, or environment. Some poems can be read and moved to for their rhythmic quality. Have one person read the poem while the other moves to the rhythm of the words.

Dancing to the poem will make that poem become more alive and meaningful as well as being a memorization tool. Try singing the words with the melody from a favorite song, or freezing while the words are being read and dancing in a quiet space after the sentence.

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein has wonderful descriptive poems about cows and other animals, clowns, facial expressions, movements like shaking, skipping, dancing, and tickling.

More on: Activities for Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Children

Excerpted from:

From 365 Days of Creative Play by Sheila Ellison & Judith Gray. Copyright © 2005 by Sheila Ellison & Judith Gray. All rights reserved. Used by arrangement with Sourcebooks, Inc.

Buy the book at www.amazon.com.