Sometimes the book is already doing most of the planning. The dinosaurs are dancing, the farm animals are gathering, and Little Pookie has a shimmy of its own. If you want a storytime with a bit of movement, you can begin there, with the action on the page, instead of trying to come up with a whole extra activity.
Which dance shall it be?
Dinosaur Dance! is a short, 16-page English board book with a dancing prehistoric cast. Let's Dance, Little Pookie follows one familiar character into the action. A child with a particular interest in dinosaurs or Pookie may have a fairly clear preference before you've read a word.
Barnyard Dance! brings the whole farmyard together. For a stage rather than a farm, The Bunny Rabbit Show! has ten singing, dancing rabbits. We like how different the settings are, even though movement is the thread through all of them.
Then there's Woodland Dance!, with animals gathering in a moonlit glade and a musical trio playing. It's another direction to take the same idea, especially if you'd enjoy describing the instruments and the nighttime scene along with the dancing.
Leave some room around the book
Choose one story and read a little before deciding what to do with it. You might describe a character's action, offer a clap or make a small gesture from where you're sitting. Anyone who wants to move can find a version that suits them; watching is a perfectly good way to be there too.
If the reading does turn into dancing, make enough clear space and set the book where it won't get stepped on. You can return to it between movements. There's no routine to get through and no reason everyone has to do the same thing.
Back to the page for a moment
After an action catches your attention, look for that character again. Perhaps another animal is doing something worth trying, or perhaps this is the point where you'd rather sit together and finish the story. Returning to the illustration after trying a movement can give you something new to notice about the character who started it.
For a gift, we'd include a little note about what drew you to the story. Barnyard Dance! could be the start of a farm-themed read-aloud; our dinosaur gift guide looks at the prehistoric direction in more detail.
There are different reading moods in our Boynton collection. If you'd like another way to join in, try animal-sound stories, or compare touch-and-feel and pretend-interactive books for something to share while sitting together. Let the story suggest the next little thing.
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