A Winter Dance Story: The Most Perfect Snowman

Hello, and Happy 2020!

I have created a new dance story around one of my favorite picture books: The Most Perfect Snowman, by Chris Britt. This is a fun and lively mid-winter activity, perfect for story time!

This beautiful story is about generosity, kindness, and selflessness, and is told in a gentle way. The lovely illustrations and language portray the story of a lonely snowman, Drift, who only has two skinny stick arms, and a mouth and eyes made of coal.  He has no hat, scarf, or mittens.  He sees the parade of other stylish snow people go by, laughing, dancing, and playing, and he longs for company and to be like the other snowmen. Most of all he wants a nice carrot nose. He thinks that if he were stylish and had a carrot nose, he would be perfect.

Drift spends his days slipping and sliding through the woods all alone.  Three children see him and feel sorry for him.  One child gives him a hat.  Another gives him mittens, and a third gives him a scarf.  Then, one of them gives him a wonderfully big carrot, and says that now he is a perfect snowman. Drift is happy and plays with the children.

A furious storm blows in. Drift thanks the children and waves good-bye to them.  The wind blows his hat and mittens away, and he tries to find them.  He searches everywhere. He's sorry to lose his new clothes, but is happy that he still has his long, warm scarf, and his fancy carrot nose.

He hears a little whimper in the middle of the howling wind.  It is a small bunny who is trying to survive the cold winter night.  Drift gives the bunny his warm scarf.  Then he hears the bunny's tummy growl with hunger.  He gives the bunny his carrot, and this makes him "the most perfect snowman of all."

Now, let's dance the story!

THE MOST PERFECT SNOWMAN

Dance Story

Read the story aloud, then use the following prompts to inspire the children to retell the story through movement.  Call out each one, and give the children plenty of time to respond through movement. This activity takes about 15 minutes, and works best in a large space.

Play a quiet instrumental selection in the background, such as "Just Before Dawn," by William Ackerman, from the album "A Winter's Solstice," Vol 4.

Begin the Dance Story:

• Imagine you are Drift, the snowman. You have eyes, a mouth, and two stick arms.  

• You spend your days alone, slipping and sliding through the woods, slowly and sadly.

• Here comes a parade of fancy, stylish snowmen.  Can you parade around proudly, showing your hats, mittens, and scarves?

• Have an imaginary snowball fight.

• Now do a snowman dance!

• Swish and slide through the woods, like Drift, watching the other snowmen play. 

• Suddenly, you see three children.  Wave hello to them.  Maybe they will come over to you.

• One of them offers you her hat.  Put it on your snowman head!  What color is it?  How does it feel?

• Another offers you mittens.  What do they look like?  Put them on your stick arms.

• And now one gives you a long, warm scarf.  Can you wrap it around yourself?

• What is the little girl holding now?  A carrot!  She gives it to you!  Put it on your face, just like you have always wanted.  You are the perfect snowman! Play with the children in the snow.

• Imagine you are a snowflake flying around in the storm. What shape are you? Blow side to side, up and down, as the strong wind swirls you around.  

• Now imagine you are Drift, and suddenly your hat blows away.  Oh no!  Try to find it.  Now your mittens blow away.  Slide through the woods and try to find them too.

• It's time to hunker down for the night and wait out the storm.What do you hear?  Listen carefully. Do you hear a small voice?  Look all around. 

• Look down and see a tiny, shivering bunny who is lost.

• Now, imagine you are the bunny.  How does it feel to be very, very cold? The snowman is giving you his warm scarf! Wrap up in the soft scarf. 

• The kind snowman is giving you his wonderful orange carrot nose! Munch softly on the carrot as you snuggle up next to the most perfect snowman of all.

MOVING IS LEARNING!

Keep on dancin',

Connie

www.movingislearning.com

Snow Around the Clock - Let's Dance!

    Hello from snowy, cold Chicago! It's Miss Carole of Macaroni Soup, and I've got a lively dance for you to warm up your students AND encourage them to listen to instruction.

   I recorded "SNOW Around the Clock” on my Season Sings cd, but you could use any lively music that you can stop and start. No, it’s not a freeze dance exactly, but it does have an element of “freeze” – to listen for the instruction. On a wintery day if you can’t get outdoors, this activity will get some of the wiggles out!

The song (yes, the original which I recorded with permission was sung by Bill Haley, new lyrics by me):

"Freeze!  Blue!"

1-2-3 o’clock, 4 o’clock – SNOW!

5-6-7 o’clock, 8 o’clock – SNOW!

9-10-11 o’clock, 12 o’clock – SNOW!

When is it going to stop?  FREEZE!

I’ve got snow on my hands, snow on my toes

Everywhere I look there’s more snow snow snow!

I’ve gotta shake my hands and shake my feet

I’ve gotta shake snow off to this jazzy beat

I’m gonna shake’n’shake’n’shake from my head down to my feet!

   You’ll need:  colored circles or shapes in 4 or 5 colors.  I picked up the 6” fun-foam dots pictured here in the clearance bin of a teacher store - cheap!  You could use construction paper, but it probably won’t be good for more than one use. You could also buy the foam and cut squares or circles.

I invite the children to name the colors we’ll be using, then help place the dots on the floor. The rules of the game:

1. You can dance anywhere without stepping on a dot while the music plays.

2. When the music stops, listen for the teacher to call out a color.  

    (I pause the music until everyone has found a dot.)

3. Put one foot on a dot of the called color. Dots can be shared.

4. When the music resumes, DANCE!  Repeat sequence.

  

Be-bop together!

   It’s that simple! Some children dance together. Some solo. Everyone has fun!

   I love it because we share, we listen, we communicate (“Hey Martin – there’s room for you on my dot!”) AND we are getting our brains and bodies fired up with Active Music!                          Hooray!

   At the end of the dance, each child brings me 1-2 dots and we’re ready to sit and do something less active, but just as exciting – a fingerplay, song with motions or sing-a-book. How about The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, with a Snowball Freeze Fight in the middle?  Check out my FEBRUARY 16, 2014 BLOG for that one – it’s my claim to fame!

   "SNOW Around the Clock" is also fun at home or for a birthday party!  Come on, let's have fun and celebrate winter - whether you live in a snowy part of the country or not!

    I'm working on booking a tour in Colorado at the beginning of July! Want to have a Macaroni Soup concert at your camp, library or summer school program?  

...AND I may be heading to Upstate NY at the beginning of May - call me if you'd like to bring fun and learning through music and movement to your town!

Yours for a Snowy Song!

Carole Stephens

Macaroni Soup! Active Music for Active Learners!

847.384.1404

SNOW!!

Happy 2015!  Are you ready for a new year?  A brand new slate....fresh, clean and ready to be filled with golden opportunities and wonderful adventures!

This is Terri Izatt from KinderKapers and I am ready to get all those little ones up and moving and outside.  The book that inspired my blog name says that all the animals were dancing their merry Christmas Capers.  I want to see all our kinders out and dancing some merry kapers of their own.  But how do you do that in the winter?

You model, model, model.  If you want your kids (students or your own children) to be active, you have to be active with them.  No groaning or complaining when it is time for outside recess duty.  Dress for the weather and show the kids how fun it can be.

Let's start with how to dress for the weather.  Layers.  That is the key.  If you are in a very cold and snowy place allow extra time in your schedule for getting those layers on.  Snowpants and boots are a must if you live where the kids come to school with snow on the ground.  Your students also need a good coat, hat and gloves.  Is it hard to keep track of that stuff?....yes.  Is it hard to keep it dry?....yes.  Is it healthy for kids to be outside in the cold?....YES!!

It is a little different dressing your own children for outside play, but the general rules are the same. You can't control what parents do, but you can encourage.  For school time clothing, layers are nice because when you are in the classroom you can let your students shed a few layers during the day and they can put them back on for recess, outside activities, and the walk home.  Yes....I did say outside activities.  You can and should encourage outside learning opportunities. 

As you think about outside learning activities you need to be aware of the preparedness of your students.  Don't go beyond their readiness to be comfortable in the cold.  If I can count on there being snow, I plan ahead and send home a note telling parents I need them to send their kids with boots and gloves and warm clothing.  They will be going outside.  If you need to, help teach your parents how to be happy and safe.  KidsHealth.org has good information to share here and here. 

How can I help those who don't come prepared?  I have a few pairs of extra gloves and plastic bags over shoes, and then we hurry through activities and break them up if students are getting too cold.

What activities can we do??  Some are planned out ahead.  I usually know what we will be doing and when we will:
build a snowman,

Build a snowman.  Then write a simple how to story.

 act out stories,

My favorite book to act out. 

make snow angels,

No snow for us yet this year, but here is a picture from Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day

 learn about how matter changes by freezing water in a small jar.

Better picture to come after we conduct our experiment on Monday

Other activities I just need to be ready because you need fresh snow to catch and observe snowflakes, you need lots of fresh snow to make snow cream.  Those activities come up sort of on the spur of the moment and I want to be ready to take advantage.  I have magnifying glasses in my classroom and you just need cold dark paper or fuzzy fabric (like hats, gloves, and coats) to catch those snowflakes....but look fast!
For snow cream I bring sugar, vanilla, and evaporated milk from home and just keep it in my closet. 

True confessions...this is not my picture, but mine looks just like this when I have enough snow to make it.  Second confession....there is no real recipe.  I just add milk (evaporated, cream, or even regular), vanilla and sugar until it tastes like ice cream.  It is about 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1teaspoon vanilla.  Then I add enough snow to make it the desired thickness.  You really can't go wrong.

What can you do if you have no snow??  WHAT????  NO SNOW!!!!  Easy....make your own.

I learned of this great recipe just before Christmas.  You can bet we took advantage of that!

Our elf brought this in December. 

All you need is shaving cream and baking soda.  I gave each student about 1/3 cup of baking soda and covered it with a good squirt of shaving cream.  We tried mixing them in the cups, but ended up finishing it in baggies.  Then just for a little extra fun because this snow is made with baking soda, you can spray it with vinegar and it will fizz.  Exploding snowballs....how fun is that?

You can make your own snowflakes and have an indoor blizzard hanging from your ceiling.  Martha Stewart has some great directions here.

You can also check out this website for information on the science of snowflakes.  

You can learn about Snowflake Bentley and how he captured snowflakes with photography.

You can have an indoor snowball fight (and target all kinds of skills).  Just give each student a square of paper and have them write a word, a math problem, a letter, then wad that paper up into a ball.  One, Two, Three....GO!  Have them throw the snowballs at you, each other, a target, or just up in the air.  Now collect the snowballs and take turns reading the words, solving the math problems, giving words that begin with the alphabet letter.  It is all in good fun and it is all about the learning too.

I have a game in my TpT store for free called snowball fight.  You play it with snowballs and a hat, cup, or mitten.  Take your snowballs, count them, then someone gets to hide those snowballs in the hat.  It is the job of everyone else to figure out how many snowballs are hiding.  You can download the game and recording sheet here.

It is always good fun to throw in some snowy art.

And a poem or two.

                                          

This wonderful rhyming poem is from my favorite author (my mom).

Have fun in the snow and with the snow.  From my class to yours....we {heart} winter!

New Year! New Goals! Real Life! Fresh Starts!

Wishing the Happiest New Year to EVERY Reader Here! 

True confession #1. I have just arisen from my Nyquil induced haze to realize that today is NOT the first of the month. Just goes to show what wins in a show-down between a full life, high expectations, an unexpected 'bug' and reality. 

My Cinderella impression {on Dayquil} Proof I was upright on the 31st

Truth be told I didn't even feel guilty yesterday. Yesterday I had NO awareness that January first follows Dec. 31st. My brain cells were apparently in that razor thin area between thinking straight and just nodding in and out of awareness between the commercial scenes for that aching, sniffling, running nose, aching, stuffy head, aching, aching and pounding head with aching caricature. Nothing exotic. Not-to-worry. Certainly not the full-fledged-flu. Just NO connection to the bigger picture, beyond my blankie.

I felt so bad, I had to wake up today to learn that my favorite under-dogs, "THE Ohio State Buckeyes" had reined supreme! Watching all of their footage from the saved recorded film, it still hadn't dawned on me: my duties here as editor-in-chief of the collaborative remained illusive as the Nyquil diffused. High noon and reality dawned. I missed my deadline! By OVER 24 hours! 

#HolyBloggingEggOnFace! 

True Confession #2: I just counted the number of articles contributed here during this past month of December and the grand total was NINE! I think it goes without saying that our collaboration here has lost energy steam direction visibility  determination  passion.

Listening to coach Nick Saban during the aftermath interviews following the Crimson Tide's unexpected defeat, he showed class and accepted responsibility for the upset loss. I too accept responsibility for the continuing decline in regularly published articles here. 

Something of a chicken-and-egg conundrum. When the quantity of articles declines our readership sags as well. I can assure you that the QUALITY of articles from those dedicated authors still writing here, continues to be stellar in every regard. For each and every one of them who prioritizes their contribution? I give a HUGE thanks! So glad that my Nyquil haze has not obliterating your continued contributions. 

True Confession #3: I have THROWN my heart and soul into this latest social networking phenom which is our weekly Twitter chat at #TeacherFriends. {Must have candid conversation with self as to how many plates can be spun successfully in how many different arenas, but that's for another day.} 

The truth about blogging? It's hard. And it is seriously hard to blog successfully over the l-o-n-g haul! What topic? Where's the interaction? Where's the stats and readership now that FB and even Pinterest have gone to pay-to-play status? Blogging is swimming up stream in terms of feedback. Twitter swims downstream with immediacy of interaction. By ALL means mark your calendar! There are some HUGE names on the horizon for the PreK+K Crowd! Take a look for yourself! 

By moderating our weekly Twitter chat I have INSTANT gratification! I am tweeting/speaking to real teachers in real time! There is something to be said for paragraphs vs. 140 characters at a time. For now? I'm going to have my cake and eat it, too! Continue with our weekly #TeacherFriends chat and see if I can resuscitate the collaborative. Lofty goals! Hey! It's a NEW Year [even if I slept through the first 36 hours of it.] Hit RESET! 

What does this NEW Year have in store for you? Are you able to get out of your "own way" and continue toward excellence in the face of little feedback? Frustration? A national stampede for increased academia in early childhood, when we ALL know that #playmatters! 

I am so excited that exactly two weeks from tonight I will have traveled from this eastern coast we call home to the annual CA PK1 conference, known for their focus on ARTS integration!!! I get to give a mini-keynote on Sunday, Jan 18th, following Dr. Jean as she leads off the morning for all involved! 

The whole three day event kicks off with a "Blogger Fiesta" where over a dozen of your favorite blogging celebrities will join together in one MEGA celebration -- with SWAG! You still have time to register, but HURRY! Hope to see you there! 

Enough about me. How can I support your January?

{click each picture below to go to the earlier article} 

Snowmen in a Ziplock Baggie Snow-Globe! 

BRRR- IT'S COLD OUTSIDE! LET'S SING & MOVE!

Hi!  My name is “Miss Carole” Stephens of Macaroni Soup – Active Music for Active Learners! 

Yes, yes – you’ll get new Songs for Winter Weather in this blog – but first, in this season of thankfulness, I want to highlight a few reasons I feel so blessed to do the work that I do, share the life that I live and wake up every day excited about what it may hold!  These people are what keep me going:

1. THE CHILDREN 

- My own (Camden and Greg) who have been great companions on this eventful journey. I am proud of the adults you have become!

- My students – the thousands of little ones who have sung, danced and played with me in 25 years of teaching. I am pleased to say that it’s been a privilege to touch my toe to my nose with you during “Sticky Bubble Gum”, and mix up a pretty “Stinky Cake!”

Touching my toe to my nose - I've still got it!

Stinky Cake - ewe!

2. MY COLLEAGUES – the legions of teachers who come (and keep coming back) to my workshops, the EC educators who work with me in schools, the incredible Children's Music Network and my fellow presenters at conferences who welcome me into the fold.

3. MY HUSBAND – yup, Jim didn’t know what he was getting into 9+ years ago – but I’m so thankful that all this whacky music-making didn’t scare him away!

OK – enough sappy stuff – I THANK EVERYONE who has encouraged me to keep doing what I do!  Now come’on, Miss Carole – let’s get singing!

   Here in Chicago we expect cold and snow – but not really for Halloween (really, Mother Nature – that was nasty!) Pulling out the gloves and ear muffs before Thanksgiving?  Not amusing! SO, let’s get even, and be ready with songs and movement activities that will warm up the coldest day, brighten up the dreariest skies and put a smile on everyone’s faces!

    ALL of this month’s songs can be heard on my “Season Sings” cd – hear the clips to get started – or you can order the cd on my website.

WE’RE MARCHING IN THE SNOW!

    The tune is familiar to many – “The Farmer in the Dell”. It’s a zipper song – sing the verse over and over, but zip in a new movement each time!  Easy and fun!

LYRICS:  We’re marching in the snow

            We’re marching in the snow

            Hi Ho! The wind will blow!

           We’re marching in the snow!

I love to add these verses: skating on the snow, running in the snow, rolling in the snow, tiptoe-ing on the snow – and you can add your own verses!

HAT AND JACKET, PANTS AND BOOTS!

    Yes – another familiar tune: “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.  I suggest making pictures of each piece of clothing to string together to “read” left to right before starting to sing this one!  Then tap the part of the body that each piece of clothing is worn on as you sing.  Clap your hands on the beat during “When it’s cold and we go outside to play.” 

LYRICS:  Hat and jacket, pants and boots-

               Pants and boots!

               Hat and jacket, pants and boots-

               Pants and boots!

               When it’s cold and we go outside to play,

               We wear hat and jacket, pants and boots-

               Pants and boots!

    Start singing this song slowly, speeding up with each repetition!  It’s a favorite!

BUILDING A SNOWMAN (Part one of the “Snowman Trio”)

    This little movement piece should be done in a teacher led/child echo style.

LYRICS:  Head ball!     (echo)

               Belly ball!     (echo)

               Bottom ball!  (echo)

               DONE!     (echo)

               Building a snowman…(echo)

               Is SOOOO much fun! (echo)

MOVEMENTS:           

Head ball – stretch arms overhead, fingertips touching

Belly ball – swing arms down to cradle tummy

Bottom ball - drop hands to floor

Done! – Straighten up, clap hands once.

Building a snowman – roll hands in front of body

Is SOOO much fun – wave hands wildly overhead!

    We can never do this just once in my classes – there’s always “again!” The second time around, you might build a SNOWGIRL!  We do!

OK – now you’re ready!  You can do these songs in Florida or Southern California – no snow needed! Hey – send me a picture of your kids doing one of these songs!  I’ll post it on my FB page: Macaroni Soup with Miss Carole. LIKE me there, please!
    I've just returned from Dallas and this year's NAEYC Conference!  It was a stupendous experience - hugs to the hundreds of teachers who made my workshop one for the memory books!  Can't wait til next year!

    Stay warm - keep moving - and singing!
Yours for an-awfully-early Winter-y Song!
Miss Carole
MacaroniSoup.com