On Monday, I read this book to the class. It has become one of my very favorites. If you haven't seen it or read it, you ought to. It is a lovely book about Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. He was one of America's most talented tap dancers. He was amazing. As the book says, "He made art with his feet".
The class really took to this story. We read it again and again. One student even checked it out of the school library! We found out that dance was Bojangle's PASSION. Then talked about what our passions were. WOW! Our class has a lot of interesting passions. Football. Singing. Dancing. Joking. Riding bikes. Quilting (that was mine!)
I thought it would be fun to show the students what Bill Robinson looked like and how talented he was. I found the following two video clips. The children were MESMERIZED. I watched pure joy in their faces. Their comments made me proud of them for recognizing talent such as Bill possessed and for gathering so much information from this little biography. Here is a short video of a performance he did with Miss Shirley Temple:
And...this one is my favorite. I would be winded after the second time over the steps. Take some time to talk to your first grader about these videos. I hope they give you an earful of information.
Cool videos! Dallin enjoyed showing them to me and I enjoyed watching them with him. Thanks for sharing them, we will have to look for the book.
ReplyDeleteTristan has been OBSESSED with Shirley Temple since this day and she walks around singing Animal Crackers! I had to show her my favorite Shirley Temple song on YouTube (The Goodship Lollipop). She giggled the whole time!
ReplyDeleteHi Tami. Just stumbled across your blog. What a cool literature experience. I wonder how many tap dancers you have inspired.
ReplyDeleteGood to see what you've been up to. Just married Jonathan off this past month.