Literacy and Learning: Giraffes Can't Dance

Hello friends!

Today I'm going to share one of our favorite books with you. I grabbed Giraffes Can't Dance on a whim at Kohl's when it was one of their $5 books, and it has become a bedtime regular! It is such a sweet story about being true to yourself.

In the story the giraffe learns that "everyone can dance when they find music that they love." Maybe it's the Special Ed teacher in me, but I just love that!

We love music around here. One of our favorite things to do is turn on Pandora and dance around the living room (Pandora has some great kids radio station, FYI). One great way to facilitate music and creative movement at home to to build a creative movement box. Fill it up with instruments and other fun stuff and pull it out when ever the kids need to get moving!

What can you fill it with? I'm glad you asked.

Companies like Melissa & Doug have great pre-made musical instruments.

If your feeling creative, there are also a ton of homemade instruments to make. Here are some of my favorites:

Tubular (cardboard) bells from Minieco

Homemade Bongos from the Kids Activities Blog

Simple guitars, like this one at Teach Beside Me

All sorts of goodies from Mermaids Makings

and I love these cute tamborine drums from I Can Teach My Child!

The best part about all of these? You can pretty much grab anything you have around the house and turn it into a musical instrument! Love.

We've covered music, now how about movement? Here is some good stuff:

Super simple ribbon wands from Atypical Type A.

Or, if you want something a bit more sturdy, check out Prudent Baby's tutorial (this one is on my to-do list!)

Another classic is simple juggling scarves. Oriental Trading has some great prices!

Now...get moving!

Be blessed!

Heather



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