I Can Dance
Updated I Can Dance – Emotional Health Through Expressive Play
This Emotional Health series, I Can Dance, is a six-book series that brings emotional learning to life through joyful, embodied experiences helping students move through big feelings and reconnect with themselves and others. Created and facilitated by Hannah Beach through guided audio that supports somatic release, the series provides a safe, playful outlet filling a crucial gap in today's play-deprived childhoods.
- Self-regulation is the gift that comes from the movement experiences of this book.
- Expressive play fills a need for relationship and helps to build connection between the teacher and students.
- Super easy for teachers: review the introduction, read the book to your class, and turn on the facilitated audio.
- Designed for K–6 classrooms across Canada.
Supporting Social Emotional Learning
Each title in the I Can Dance series:
- Features an introduction that focuses on how to use expressive play to support children’s emotional health.
- Presents inclusive visuals so that all children can see themselves reflected in the series.
- Includes digital access to files both with and without voice-over facilitation.
- Is grounded in this key question: What is expressive play and how does it build emotional health?
Expressive play is a way for children to communicate and explore their feelings through movement. It allows children to share emotions and experiences they might find difficult to express with words.
Also available in French as Je peux danser.Features of I Can Dance
Visuals
Images foster inclusive spaces by depicting children of all abilities dancing.
Descriptive Text
Provides students with additional opportunities to reinforce their learning.
Bolded Direction
Bolded direction on each spread aims to inspire imaginative dynamic experiences.
Introduction to
I Can Dance
Discover how to bring emotional learning to life through joyful, embodied experiences helping students move through big feelings and reconnect with themselves and others.
WatchFree Lesson
We are thrilled to provide access to a specially designed lesson with a digital book from I Can Dance that explores emotional health through expressive play. Foster emotional release, connection, and joy in the classroom. Join the movement — bring expressive play to your students today!
Download Free Lesson
Author
Hannah Beach is an award-winning educator, author, emotional health consultant, and keynote speaker. She is the co-author of the best-selling book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever—and What We Can Do About It, with Tamara Neufeld Strijack. She was recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017 as one of five featured changemakers in Canada.
Her bestselling I Can Dance book series, supporting the emotional health of children through movement, play, and expression, won a gold medal at the 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, an international awards contest.
You can find her at hannahbeach.ca