Wake Up! Wake up! Today’s the day, my body wants to move and play!

As an elementary PE teacher, this sentence accurately describes my working environment. Often my biggest struggles center around corralling the students long enough to give directions in order to get them moving with some purpose. They simply enter the gym and need to move!

The opening lines of the book were meant to capture this overwhelming student energy.

Recently, I used the book in class for the first time, eager to see the responses I would get. I had upbeat music cued, the students in their own space, and as the book recommends, we made sure they had tied each shoelace!

After a brief introduction to the story, we were ready to move.

Each page describes and illustrates a movement or action, as I read the page and showed the pictures, the students began to mimic the desired action. I called out students’ who were showcasing the correct movement and then the others quickly had a model to copy.

Many students treated each page as a puzzle, attempting to be the first to correctly identify the exercise or movement pattern. We eagerly worked our way through a total body workout that did not even feel like exercise. It was playing, dancing, problem-solving, and reading!

What a way to read!

Engaging the body and the mind, students were alert and connected to the story, listening and looking to uncover the meaning of each page.

As the story transitions into a description of games and skill practice, we cooled down and tried to anticipate which game would conclude our class. Capture the flag! A real favorite.

To take the final line from the story, “I really hope to play with you,” certainly was true that day.

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