Books

“Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae
“Baby Danced the Polka” by Karen Beaumont
“Down by the Cool of the Pool” by Tony Mitton

Five Ballerinas

I love having the children stand up, spin in a circle and jump.

Five dancing ballerinas
Dancing on their toes
One twirls, spins and jumps
Then off the stage she goes

(count down)

We Can Jump

We can jump, jump, jump
We can hop, hop, hop
We can clap, clap, clap
We can stop, stop, stop
We can nod our heads for yes
We can shake our heads for no
We can bend our knees a little bit
And we can sit down slow

Tommy Thumbs

Tommy thumbs up
(hold up thumbs and raise arms)
Tommy thumbs down
(lower arms)
Tommy thumbs dancing all around the town
(wave arms side to side)
Dance them on your shoulders
(tap thumbs on shoulders)
Dance them on your head
(tap them on your head)
Dance them on your knees
(tap them on your knees)
And tuck them into bed
(whisper and tuck thumbs into fist)

(repeat while jumping up and down)

Music CDs

List of Dances by Jim Gill – It’s a good idea to have the list written on a large piece of paper or a white board, this way families can follow along easily.

Silly Dance Contest by Jim Gill

Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi

I Really Love to Dance by Laurie Berkner

Walk Around by Dino O’Dell

How it Went: This storytime was more of a music & movement program and less of my normal storytime. I tend to get a lot of high energy toddlers who love to dance so I thought this would be a fun program. The families really got into the music and had so much fun!