Music & Movement
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Lip-Sync
Pop some favorite music in your CD player, hand out the spoons (microphones) and start singing! For really wild days, we even stand on our chairs for private stages!
RHYTHM
Clap a rhythm and ask the children to repeat it after you.
Make a freight train and parade around the room to the rhythm of the engine.
Bounce balls to the rhythm of a favorite song.
Sit on chairs and listen to songs. On a slow part, clap hands rhythmically. During a fast part, move bended legs rapidly up and down.
SOUNDS
Sound Line
Stretch a clothesline and securely hang items like wooden blocks, plastic bottles, cardboard rolls, tin pans. Offer the children various objects to strike them with like wooden and metal spoons. Talk about the sounds they make.
Button Tap
String the looped ends of rubber band through the holes of a large button. Bring both loops through and slide onto the child's finger. To play he taps his finger on a pan or some other hard surface.
Sound Box
Bring out a box of various things that make sounds - squeak toys, music boxes, shakers. Talk about the adjectives that describe the sounds -squeaky, tapping, loud, soft, high, low. If you are working with older children, write them down and label them as adjectives. Brainstorm with the children where you may have heard similar sounds before - does one sound like the rain, a horse running, be creative. After you have experimented with the various sounds, go to a table where you have arranged noise making items such as sand, rice, buttons, noodles and plastic containers, tape, markers, glue and paper. Let the children make their own shakers and decorate them. When you are done, have a marching band.
Variation:
Make up some shakers ahead of time and see if the children can duplicate them.
Variation:
While you tell a story, have the children choose sounds to go along with it - the wind blowing, someone running, knocking etc.
What Do You Hear?
Lie down on the floor or ground and close your eyes. Listen to the sounds around you. Can you hear a quiet sound? A loud sound? Hum one of the sounds you hear.
Name That Tune
Play a few notes of a song from a favorite CD See if the children can name the song.
Dance With Me
Have one child lead a dance and the other children imitate.
Musical Moods
Play a variety of music for the children and talk about how the music makes them feel. Encourage the children to move to the music. Make up a story, either together or individually, about what is happening in the music. Act out your story in a dance.
Variation:
Give the children crayons or paint and paper and have them paint the way the music makes them feel.
Bell Pole
Thread three or four bells together on a piece of string or yarn. Knot one end. Tape the other end to a dowel or other safe stick. Let a child play the bells by shaking the pole or tapping it with his hands.
CREATIVE MOVEMENT
Teach children to appreciate the performance of others by having half the group sit and be the audience which applauds at the end. Another variation would be for the children to play instruments to the movement of the other children.
Winter
Pretend to be snowflakes falling to the ground. Whirl, twirl, let the wind blow hard, gentle, how do you fall? Do you melt when you hit the ground? Be children in the snow. Slip, slide, skate. Make a snowman.
Spring
Making a garden---
Spading, planting, hoeing.
Be seeds growing in the sun, rain, wind.
Nature:
Baby and mother birds, butterflies, flowers growing, dancing, Rain falling - walk in the rain, jump over puddles, rain drip dance.
Be a worm---
Wiggle a small part of you. A big part. Wiggle a part below the waist. Above the waist. At your side.
Be a butterfly---
Take some colorful scarves and wrap yourself up in a blanket. Lie still for a few minutes then come out, slowly first, flap your wings and fly around the room.
Situations
Give the children a situation and ask them how them would move if:
The floor is:
Sticky because glue was spilled on it.
Greasy and slippery because there is oil all over it.
Sandy because a truck poured sand all over it.
Bouncy because someone dropped 100 rubber balls on it.
Slippery because it is all ice
Prickly because someone put thorny roses all over it.
Song - Down By the Station
Children sit one behind the other in a row. The person sitting in the first chair is the engineer. During the first verse, coordinate arm motion with bicycling leg movement. During the refrain, all pull imaginary cord for whistle, hit imaginary bell in front of you. At the end of the refrain, first child runs to back of row and sits down as all the other children move one seat forward. Repeat until everyone has had a turn being the engineer.
Find your space
Touch the space around you - how big is it? Move your body within your space. What if your space just got smaller? How small is it? How do you move now? Now it is bigger, how can you move?
Body Parts
Have the children find a partner to dance with. Call out a body part and have them dance touching that part of their partner - thumb to thumb, knee to knee.
Musical Hugs
Play music. When music stops find someone to hug and hold hands with. When the music stops a second time, find another group to hug and hold hands with until you have one giant hug!
*Submitted by Sherry
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