Happy Halloween week!
One of the best ways to help young children explore and discover the many ways their body moves is through their imagination. Halloween presents the perfect opportunity for movement exploration with it’s cast of characters: ghosts, skeletons, zombies, spiders, witches… all with their own distinct ways of moving.
Today, as you get your Halloween Festivities started, I want to share a few monster themed books that will keep you in the spirit AND help your kiddo burn off some of that extra energy they’re bursting with this week. And actually, all of these are monster books, but technically none of them are Halloween specific, so you can use them to for dancing all year long!
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There’s a Monster in your Book by Tom Fletcher
My daughter got this one for her birthday and ten months later, it's still a HUGE hit. I have to admit, when I saw the title, I thought it was just going to be a knock off of my childhood favorite There's a Monster at the end of this Book (starring loveable, furry old Grover). But it's not. It's interactive - with suggestions to wiggle, shake and tilt the book - all with the goal of getting the monster out of the book. *spoiler ahead* But when tickling the monster and making loud noises make the monster leave the book - there's a new problem... the monster is in your room!! Then the reader must call the monster back to tuck it safely into bed... inside the covers of the book. It's super cute and my daughter gets a kick out of making loud noises and always leans closer when the monster peeks under the page to come back into the book. The book is interactive all on it’s own, but you can make it a true Move & Groove experience by doing the movements to the book AND with your body. The movements include: tilt, wiggle, shake, and spin. You can practice conscious breathing when you try to blow the monster away and give a tactile experience by tickling your little one while they tickle the monster. And when it’s time to make a “LOUD NOISE”, you can discover which body parts are capable of making loud noises (stomping feet, clapping hands, shouting voices). Even better, you can still end this book with a snuggle by pretending to tuck your child into bed while they do the same for the monster in the book.
Frank was a Monster who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves
Frank gets all dressed up (including putting some ants in his pants), drives to the theater, and decides to dance on stage. His performance wows the audience and creates a perfect opportunity to explore how different body parts move with Move & Groove readers. Frank shakes his shoulders and kicks his legs high. But grownups beware: Frank does some daring moves including cartwheels and flips, so make sure you have plenty of space when trying out his moves! You don’t want to end up like Frank, whose body starts to fall apart, giving even more dance ideas to kids: flopping and plopping like Frank’s spilled brain and rolling like his lost eyeball. As an added bonus, the inside covers of this book include a movement map: a twisting path of footsteps with movement words like leap, hop, twist, and jump that you can try to recreate at home. Want to make this story time even more of an activity? I recommend playing dress up at the beginning, getting “fancy” for a performance, just like Frank, and then putting on some music to perform.
There was an old Monster! By Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley
This book is a new take on the old classic “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly”. In it, a monster keeps swallowing critters and creatures until the story ends [spoiler alert] when he (and the contents of his stomach) gets eaten by a lion. This book opens the door to movement exploration through the critters and creatures introduced. Start out by having your little one creeping like a tick or ant, belly crawling like a lizard, flying like a bat, walking with hands and feet on the ground like a bear, and pouncing like a lion.
Then go even deeper in your dance adventure by matching moves to the action of the story:
How would you dance if you were sick because you ate a tick?
How can you do a “scritchy scratchy” dance with your hands on your legs/arms/face/back?
What if the “scritchy scratchy” feeling was inside your body? How would you dance if you felt “scritchy scratchy” in your belly/neck/head/feet?
What body parts move when you cackle (after you eat the jackal)? Can you cackle with your body instead of you voice?
And of course leave time for dancing like you have ants in your pants!
Need more ideas? How about setting out a bunch of scarves (or if you don’t have scarves you can use extra pillowcases, tissues, or cloth napkins) and dance around gathering them up and if you were gathering them into your belly. You can even pretend each one is a different creature from the book and do those moves when you pick it up.
As an added bonus, this book has an accompanying song (the link is on the second page) so you have a built in playlist for this one!
I hope you enjoy these recommendations for Halloween dance-along books! Want even more creative dance Halloween activities? Check out my ebook The Halloween Hop.