These movement books are the perfect way to inspire playful and creative movement activities in your home, classroom, or therapy practice!
*This post contains affiliate links. Read more.
When we’re planning our developmental play groups or therapy sessions, we typically plan the activities around a kid-friendly theme. Our themes inspire creative new ideas, keep us organized, and give kids some context for why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Sometimes our themes are seasonal (Snow, Valentine’s Day, Christmas) , sometimes they appeal to kids’ interests (Transportation, Superheroes, Fairytales), but they almost always involve a good book.
Books are the perfect way to introduce a theme and to get kids’ imaginations going so they’re ready to jump into the rest of the activities related to the theme! When we’re selecting books to go along with our themed activities, we are specifically looking for ones that will get kids up and moving while we read or books that will inspire movement in some way after we read.
Below, you’ll find some of our favorite movement books for kids! We hope you enjoy them!
Click on the titles to find the books on Amazon.
Our Favorite Movement Books for Kids
Snowmen at Night
Pair this book with one of our all-time favorite winter yoga lessons – Snowga! Grab the book and then check out the full instructions here for our Snowga Wintertime Yoga for Kids!
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow
Another great wintertime option! This cute story goes great with our Jacket I Wear in the Snow Craft (FREE printable!).
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
We typically pull this one out around Halloween. This is such a fun story and kids will love moving their bodies to match the movements on each page! Follow this book up with our Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything Free Printable Craft!
Barnyard Dance
Kids (and adults!) love any book by Sandra Boynton – always silly, always entertaining, and always catchy! This one is no different and kids will love imitating the animals on each page.
The Very Busy Spider
Eric Carle is another author who has so many awesome movement books to choose from! Kids can practice walking like a spider (crab walking) and walking like each of the farm animals in the book!
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
This is always an exciting read during circle time or other group reading times! Kids love the suspense of the story and they get to move their bodies to recreate each step of the adventure!
Snow Dance
Read this cute book and then have kids make up snow dances of their own! We print pictures of different movements (jump, twirl, gallop, etc.) and have kids arrange them in different sequences to create their own one-of-a-kind dances!
Dinosaurumpus
Kids will love following along with the story while moving their bodies like the dinosaurs!
Brown Bear Brown Bear
Another Eric Carle classic and another great way to introduce animals for animal walks – perfect for building strength, coordination, balance, and more!
Can I Play Too?
Another all-time favorite! Check out this virtual therapy plan that goes along with Can I Play Too?
Latest posts by Claire Heffron (see all)
- The Ultimate List of Baby Milestones: 0 to 12 Months - September 21, 2023
- The Simplest Calming Sensory Trick: Deep Pressure - September 19, 2023
- Therapy toys & Supplies You Need in Your Bag This Year - July 27, 2023
Hello Clarie,
Thanks for all infos about books. Images seem awesome and hope we can find to read with kids too.
Keep it up. Best regards
Great list! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing! This is very useful for the child’s development. We also found a tutor for him, and I realized one thing – it is very important to find a loyal teacher with whom your child will be really comfortable, because then getting knowledge will be easier
If you ask what is the key element in development, the answer will be easy – books. They make us think, learn, and process the new information. I have written an article for college newspaper and found inspiration on https://samplius.com/free-essay-examples/books/ resource that offers samples for students. I totally agree that books should be present in the development of every child.
This a very nice information. thanks a lot for sharing such nice information. it really helpful for everyone.
Right now, it’s much more important for kids to get over the difficulties they have with writing in schools and colleges. So many have these problems. A lot of people just don’t know where to turn about it. I recommend looking and reading write my assignment , they help me a lot, or else I would be sitting all day doing homework. So I recommend the same to every student and pupil.