Picnic & Play: A Beetle is Shy

Nell Smyth divides movement verses into 8 categories, so I think it's helpful to think of the categories and hit something from each one. Remember that you're often repeating the verses more than once when you do them, so there's really a limit to how much you can fit in there before it's too much for the children. Today I put in one more large movement verse ("We Stretch Like Cats, We Stretch Like Tigers" from page 57 of The Breathing Circle) and I could feel us totally hit the wall. That's OK, because now I know where it is!

There are lots of things still to do -- like twirling -- but here is where we are so far.

Warming Up and Waking Up
Gentle patting, tapping, rubbing and stroking

Things we like in this category are:

"A Ram Sam Sam" song
from the Seven Times the Sun CD, track 17

"Good Morning, Dear Earth" verse

"Good Morning Feet!" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 65

Stretching
Opening up the whole body

Things we like in this category are:

"We Stretch Like Cats, We Stretch Like Tigers"
from The Breathing Circle, page 57

Feathering
Transitioning

Rocking and Rolling
Growing vitality and wakefulness

Things we like in this category are:

"Hippo Song" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 71

"The Door's Shut Tight!" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 73

Grounding
Deepening breath movement

Things we like in this category are:

"The Elephant" verse
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 17

Whirling, Twirling, Upside-Down
Supporting the integration of the vestibular system

Wrapping
Building a sense of body contour and boundaries (proprioceptive system)

Things we like in this category are:

"We Wrap, Wrap, Wrap Our Little Bundle..." verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 78

Manipulating
Building fine motor skills and dexterity

Things we like in this category are:

"Two Little Blackbirds" finger play
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 20

"Rocks to Stones" finger play
from The Breathing Circle, page 84

"Caleb the Cricket" finger play
from Move Over, Mother Goose: Finger Plays, Action Verses and Funny Rhymes, page 20

"Bennie the Beetle" finger play
from Move Over, Mother Goose: Finger Plays, Action Verses and Funny Rhymes, page 20

Today we spent another day on beetles, although we did also look at some wonderful pictures a friend sent us of cicadas hatching. We recalled the dung beetle from yesterday's story in Tell Me a Story and looked at the wonderful collage illustration of a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung on page 16 of Steve Jenkin's The Beetle Book. His illustration style is so amazing!

Our story was A Beetle is Shy by Dianna Hutts Aston (her books are also incredible and I honestly recommend just buying all six), which you could use to go in all sorts of directions. She says "A beetle is a digger..." so you could go out and dig (this illustration is also a dung beetle, the Rainbow Scarab Beetle). A beetle is also "a runner... a hopper..." so you could go outside and run and hop. A beetle is also "a swimmer..." so you could go to the beach and try to walk on water. It doesn't work out so well if you're a person and not a beetle. "A beetle is telegraphic..." so you could build a fort and flash messages to each other with flashlights, like a firefly. "A beetle is helpful..." so you could do chores. It's really pretty much endless!

If you have an older child, and a light table, the set of insect X-rays and matching picture cards by Royco is pretty fantastic!

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