Sing and Dance Your Way to Reading with Miss Rachel.

All manner of children’s entertainment come with musical components, from the songs and dances of Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger to traditional nursery rhymes, finger plays, and camp songs. (Baby Shark, anyone?) It should come as no surprise, therefore, that singing and dancing with your children does more than just burn off excess energy—it helps prepare kids to read and write. For instance, longtime storytime attendees have probably heard librarians explain how singing stretches out the sounds in words, helping littles listen for letters and phonemes. Fiddly finger-plays like The Itsy-Bitsy Spider practice fine motor skills, getting the small muscles in little hands ready to grip scissors and pencils. Bigger, sillier dances practice gross motor skills—big body motions. Look out especially for any dance gestures that involve crossing the mid-line—an imaginary vertical line that bisects the body. When kids reach an arm or leg across that line, it prepares them to reach a hand across a page, to track text from one side of a page to another, and, of course, builds coordination for other fun and important skills, like playing catch, brushing one’s teeth, and riding a bike.

Need some inspiration to get moving, dancing, and singing? Here are a few of my favorite books, albums, and web resources to get you started:

The Laurie Berkner Band
Laurie Berkner’s music is a wonderful storytime standby, with easy to learn choruses that often suggest participation, whether through dancing or chanting along! My personal favorite is the marching, stomping We Are The Dinosaurs, found on Whaddya Think of That.

Peter, Paul & Mommy
The 60’s folk group Peter, Paul & Mary’s two children’s albums were a frequent soundtrack to my childhood car rides, and I was delighted to find that they still hold up years later. Gentle, playful, and fun to sing along with. If you enjoy the first album, try Peter, Paul & Mommy, Too.

Once you’ve learned The Marvelous Toy front to back from Peter, Paul & Mary, check out this lovely ebook version of Tom Paxton’s classic children’s folk song. Don’t forget to zip, pop, and whirr along with the eponymous toy!

Dancing Feet by Lindsay Craig is a wonderful book for practicing rhythm—start a clapping or stomping rhythm with your child as you read this musical guessing game, matching colorful footprints with the dancing animal that creates them.

I Got The Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison doubles as a summer read and a celebration of the senses as a young girl travels through a city park on a warm summer day, finding music all around her in a rhythmic, rhyming story.

How Do You Dance by Thyra Heder encourages kids to find their own dance style, no matter how silly—and gives the more restrained and introverted among us permission to enforce their boundaries and privacy, an important lesson in its own right.

Sesame Street fans might enjoy the Sesame Street Dance Party, a video celebration of dance and movement featuring contemporary celebrity guests and dance styles from ballet to tap to flamenco.

For families with older kids as well as toddlers and preschoolers, I also recommend GoNoodle, a free web app packed full of exercise videos, camp songs and dances, and mini-mindfulness challenges for children.  

Looking for more? Check out our upcoming music and movement themed library programs, Singable Storytime and Stretch-n-Grow! Singable Storytime will drop on our website as an asynchronous video beginning on June 9^th. Stretch-n-Grow is a live Zoom class—you can register to receive your invitation to each class through the following calendar links: 5/28, 6/4, 6/11.

Questions, feedback, or concerns? Email us at childrenslibrary@einetwork.net!

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