The bugs in Coach Caterpillar's gym class are learning a dance, but Centipede keeps tripping over his own feet! Two steps to the left, two steps to the right. One hop forward, one hop backward.Turn right! Wiggle left. Wiggle right. Do the Bug Dance every night! 

In addition to learning basic directions, children gain a foundation in important mapping skills.

Illustrated by Christopher Santoro.
  • Have your child or class wiggle left hands, then right hands, and then left and right feet. Face the same direction as the children and have them identify your left and right hands and feet. To help them remember, you can place a string or a loose rubber band on each child’s right hand. Also point out that the thumb and the forefinger of the left hand form the letter "L." 

  • Teacher Idea:  After reading the book and acting out the dance steps, my students asked to do the dance over and over again, so I decided to create a Bug Dance Learning Center. I made a mat with outlines of feet going in all four directions. The students could then follow the dance steps in the book. I created word cards that said: "Hop," "Turn," "Left," "Right," "Forward," "Backward" and "Two Steps." I put several of each into the stack. The instructions for the kids were first to pick 6 cards, then read the cards and put them in some order to create their own dances, and finally, to enjoy the dance!

  • One day a little boy asked if we could add other dance moves to the story. So I brainstormed with the class for movement words. The activity is the same as above, but this time included more words that the students themselves had generated: "Shake," "Clap," "Jump," "Over," "Under," "Slide," "Stomp," "Three Steps," "Four Steps," and "Turn Around."
      • —Julie Heron, kindergarten teacher