Get Those Stories Moving!

1. Get Those Stories Moving! Mary Ann Efner – Occupational Therapist Mary Shands – Librarian NYLA Conference May 1, 2009

2. Outline • Why Movement in the classroom? • Specific Lesson Plans (10) Pre-K through 5 • Other Possibilities • Other Resources • Supporting Documents • Pictures • Video Clips

3. Why Use Movement in Library Class? Standing appears to provide a 5 – 15% greater flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and increases attention (Jensen, 1995). Specific movements can stimulate the release of the body’s natural motivators, such as non -adrenaline and dopamine, which wake up learners and help them feel good, maximize their energy levels, and improve their storage of information and retrieval (Jensen, 2000).Multiple Intelligences theory states that our learners all possess, to lesser or greater degrees, a bodily kinesthetic intelligence (Armstrong, 2000; Gardner 1993). • Movement energizes the brain bringing attention sensations and motor memory to both language and cognitive processes. It is a way to involve the whole body in learning-enhancing memory and giving added meaning to print. In our OT/library group, it adds to comprehension and reinforces the sequence of story in a powerful and dynamic way. And it always makes learning FUN! • All of the students in our Learning Concepts Class, have IEP goals of being able to attend for 5 to 8 minutes. Traditional story telling/library class will not be a successful fit with this IEP goal.

4. Title: The Senses Grade: Language Concepts Class Information Skills: Non-fiction book Senses; fiction book on sense My Dog Truffle or My Cat Tuna or Five for a Little One Materials: Non-fiction book on senses; one of the fiction books listed above; Jump and Jive With Hi-5; Die with senses with a picture of a sense on each side; a variety of interesting objects to see, hear, touch, taste, smell. Class Activities: Show the non-fiction book on senses and pick out some interesting facts. Read My Dog Truffle/My Cat Tuna. These are lift the flap books. Have the students guess what Tuna/Truffle, saw, smelled etcetera before they come up and lift the flap. Each student has a turn rolling the die, he/she says what sense it lands on and then chooses an activity to do that engages that sense. Everyone has a turn rolling the die and then the song is played “High 5.” Students dance and a high 5 is done each time it is sung on the CD. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

5. Title: It’s Simple Said Simon by Mary Ann Hoberman Grade: Learning Concepts Class Information Skills Fiction verses non-fiction Materials: It’s Simple Said Simon by Mary Ann Hoberman; a small dog, cat, horse, tiger and something to put them in; a tunnel to swim through. Class Activities: The plot of this book is that Simon meets each of the animals listed above and does an activity with them. While reading the book with the class do the activity with the class as Simon does. After the book is read, one by one each student chooses a dog/cat/horse/tiger from a bag and then the class as a whole engages in the activity that the animal did in the story. For example, the dog growled, the cat jumped, the horse stretched and the tiger swam through the tunnel. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

6. Title: No More Cookies by Paoeny Lewis Grade: Learning Concepts Class Information Skills: Non-fiction cookbook on cookies, fiction book on cookies Materials: Cookies: A Cookie Lover’s Collection by Creative Publishing; No More Cookies by Paoeny Lewis; Cookie Count by Robert Sabuda; fortune cookies with activities inserted in them; big jar to put the lid in with a screw top; a path Class Activities: Show the book, Cookies and discuss how it is non-fiction and how there are cookbooks in the library. Read the book, Cookie Count, have students guess the number and what type of cookie. Sing the song, “Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar.” Insert a student’s name into the song. That student comes up, goes down the path and sneaks a cookie from the cookie jar. He/she breaks the cookie open and there is an activity such as five jumping jacks that the entire class does. Repeat for the number of students in the class so that everyone gets a turn. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

7. Title: Cars Grade: Learning Concepts Class Information Skills: Non-fiction book on cars, fiction books, Red Light Stop Green Light Go by Kulman and Red Light Green Light by Anastasia Suen Materials: Non-fiction books on cars, One or both of the fiction books mentioned above; CD- “Twist and Shout”; Pieces of paper that have roads made on them; small matchbox cars. Class Activities: Show the variety of non-fiction car books and pick out a couple of interesting facts to discuss. Read either or both of the fiction books listed above. Have set up large pieces of paper with each student’s name on it. Have the students find their road. Have each student choose a car. Play the song from the CD entitled “Red Light! Green Light!” Have students stop their cars and stop the music when it is a red light. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES

8. Title: Miss Mary Mack by Mary Ann Hoberman Grade: Kindergarten/First Information Skills: Non-fiction Elephant book and discussion of where those books are discussion of fiction and how nursery rhymes are fictional Materials: Miss Mary Mack by Mary Ann Hoberman; non-fiction book on elephants; a stuffed elephant; a trampoline Class Activities: The non-fiction elephant book is read and discussed. Miss Mary Mack is read and discussed. A student helps to demonstrate the hand clapping for Miss Mary Mack. The students are split up into pairs and while one student is jumping on the trampoline, his/her partner takes care of the elephant while the rest of the students do the hand motions to the song. Revised from Otsego Northern Catskill Boces School Library System

9. Title: The Cheese by Marge Palatini Grades: K, 1, 2 Information Skills: Nursery Rhymes, revised nursery rhymes, fiction. Materials: On a white board or construction paper, have the words to the nursery rhyme, The Farmer in the Dell. Also, The Cheese by Marge Palatini Class Activities: Discuss nursery rhymes, location of, brief history of. Have the students form a circle with the line leader in the middle. Instruct the class to look at the lyrics of the song. The rest of the class joins hands around the person in the middle and sings the first two verses. When the farmer picks a wife, the line leader picks a boy and a girl to come into the circle. Keep having the two new-comers pick the next two. By the end of the song, you want to be the cheese standing alone. Run around the circle crazily singing the cheese stands alone and then tell the students that you played the game to read the book, The Cheese. I usually have the students choral, “the cheese stands alone” whenever that is stated. Read the book. Look at the white board which has the lyrics of The Farmer in the Dell on it. Ask the class to notice the similarities, which characters are the same, which ones are left out and the pattern , The Cheese, goes backwards from the nursery rhyme. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

10. Title: The House that Jack Built Grades: K, 1, 2 The Book that Jack Wrote Information Skills: Nursery Rhymes, revised nursery rhymes, fiction. Materials: This is the House that Jack Built, The Book that Jack Wrote. Copy the pages of each book twice and laminate. Put on popsicle sticks and put them in separate boxes. Write the characters from each book up on a white board. Class Activities: Discuss nursery rhymes, location of, brief history of. Present This is the House that Jack Built. Tell students that they will play the parts in the book. Hand out to each student a laminated page on a popsicle stick, double up when you have to. Tell the students that you will read the story and every time their page/character is mentioned they have to stand up. Discuss how at the end of the book, everyone will be standing up. Do the same thing with This is the Book that Jack Wrote but pre-set the students to think about what characters are the same and which ones are different from This is the House that Jack Built. Start the other way with this book so that the other side is standing more often. For fun, see how fast the students can stand up and sit down when their part is read. At the end discuss the characters that are the same and the ones that are different you could even use a graphic organizer to do so. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

11. Title: Bats Grade: 2 or 3 Information Skills: fiction verses non-fiction on bats Materials: Vampire Bats by Julie Murray and Daft Bat by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross; yoga windmill pose; white board for discussion of words daft and barmy; Ideally a document camera to show non-fiction book. Class Activities: Read and discuss the book on vampire bats. Focus on part that discusses roosting. Discuss what roosting means. Introduce the book Daft Bat. Introduce the vocabulary words, “daft” and “barmy.” Ask the class whether they think these words are compliments/insults. Discuss point of view and point of view in relation to roosting. Read the book Daft Bat and discuss how bat has a different point of view because he is roosting and upside down. As a class do the windmill pose and discuss how your viewpoint would be different if you went around in the world upside down. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

12. Title: Genre Basketball Grades: 3 - 5 Information Skills: Study of literary genres like science fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, biography, fantasy. You can also use the game the last week of school to review titles read throughout the year. Materials: A variety of books on a cart with, if needed, summaries taped to the back; a garbage can; masking tape; white board to keep score; a ball. Class Activities: Students are split up into two teams, A and B. You read a brief summary of the book and the student from team A has to guess the genre. If he/she has no idea the student may call on someone else on the team A for help. If that person guess correctly, he/she takes a shot at the basket. To get a point for the team the student must accurately answer the question and get the ball in the basket/garbage can. The questioning goes back and forth between the two teams until all students have had a chance to answer. Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill BOCES School Library System

13. Title: Use the on-line catalog and find the books Grades: 3-5 Information Skills Use of on-line catalog, location and access of specific genres Materials: At least five computers; half a sheet of paper with specific genres and a place to write call numbers; pencils Class Activities: After an overview of how to use the on-line card catalog, students are split up by counting off into teams of at least five. Each team has a computer. Working together, students must physically find a book from each of the genres and show it to me. Every team that successfully finishes, receives a prize (bookmark). Format revised from Otsego Northern Catskill Boces Library System

14. Other Possibilities: Book Movement Activity

15. OTHER RESOURCES TO USE FOR STORY AND MOVEMENT Trampoline Tunnel Bolster Bean Bag Dice Scooter Board Stepping Stones Parachute hula hoops soft vibrating animals Focus Lotion Poppers Any object specific to the story Children’s Book of Yoga by Thia Luby Any Laurie Berkner CD’s

17. Heavy Work Activities List for Teachers: Compiled and edited by Elizabeth Haber, MS, OTR/L and Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L The following are activities that provide heavy work activities. All the activities on this handout are “naturally occurring activities.” This means they can easily be incorporated into the student’s daily routine within the school environment.

18. Alerting Activities By Yack, 2002 Movement Touch Oral Motor/Taste Other

19. Classroom Adaptations and Accommodations Yack, 2002 Visual Auditory Taste/Smell

20. Classroom Adaptations and Accommodations By Ellen Yack, 2002 Movement Deep Pressure Touch

21. Calming/Organizing ActivitiesYack, 2002 Movement Touch Oral Motor/Taste Other