Movement Activities in Kindergarten and First Grade Music Class

In this post I’m sharing how to do movement activities in kindergarten and first grade music class.

Children need to move and as music teachers we can channel that energy to help them learn.

I’m using some familiar songs and chants and showing how you can add a movement component to your lessons.

This will help with management and help you reach all your little learners.

MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES FOR KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE

I like to use movement activities that support your learning goals.

Incorporating movement into your Kindergarten and First grade lesson plans will help you keep students engaged and provide them with the needed breaks between other activities.

I also found that movement helps with classroom management.

I like to use a video of the song with movement.  This helped me greatly with classroom management. I found I could walk around the room and really help or tend to the students that needed me using video activities.

HIGH LOW

Turn a song into a scarf movement activity.

You can use a song that you may know and wave the scarf to the up and down movement of the melody.

Then you can ask the students to show the scarf movement as you sing or play the song.

Gallump went the little green frog one day. Gallump went the little green frog.

Gallump went the little green frog one day and his eyes went Gallump!

SPOTIFY

AMAZON

iTunes

Or,

Bluebird Through My Window

Bluebird, bluebird through my window.

Oh, Johnny, aren’t you tired?

TPT LINK “Bluebird, Bluebird” Kodaly Folk Song Lesson

You can support the learning goal of identifying the high and low pitches with a scarf activity.

Try one of our scarf movement activities on the Sing Play Create Kids Channel.

A favorite is the Ocean Animal Friends Scarf Activity

Before doing the activity, you’ll want to show the different actions and ask the students if that movement is high or low. 

Just have them show it and call it out.

If you purchase these activities, they come with a power point which you can use for this activity.

Then play the video and have the students call out high/low and nothing if it’s in the middle.

DYNAMICS LOUD AND SOFT

I also like to use scarves to help students learn and show dynamics.

One favorite game song is the “Grizzly Bear” Song

SPOTIFY

AMAZON

iTunes

I’ll show the dynamics with a scarf first as I sing or play the song.

Grizzly bear, a grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave.

Please be very quiet, very, very quiet.

If you wake him, if you shake him, he gets very mad!

Then I’ll ask the students to show me “loud” scarves and “soft” scarves.

I’ll sing it again and have them use their scarves to show loud and soft. Loud could be big movement and soft could be small movements.

Another way to show dynamics with movement is to choose 2 actions.

Loud could be jumping.

Soft could be tip toeing.

Play the song again and ask the students to SHOW the LOUD and SOFT with those 2 movements.

I like to make a circle.  The center of the circle is the bear cave.

The space around the bear is a forest with trees and flowers and grass.

Then we pretend that we’re taking a walk through the forest and tip toe around the trees and flowers and then we are jumping as the bear roars at us on the word MAD!

FAST & SLOW

I’ve used the Teddy Bear song for beat, rhythm and practicing solfege.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch the ground.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear tie your shoe.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear that will do!

It’s also a fun song or chant to use with jump ropes.

Or pretend to jump rope as they chant.

I begin with a slow tempo and then increase the tempo each time I do the chant.

FREEZE DANCE

The Sing Play Create Freeze Dances have a flow of movement that varies from fast and slow.

You can pause the video and ask the students to call out FAST/SLOW on the different actions.

I’m using the dinosaur freeze dance video.

DINOSAUR FREEZE DANCE LINK

 ‘RUN’ is fast.

‘WAVE’ is slow.

It’s another way to teach the music concept through movement.

STEADY BEAT

Scarves are super fun to use to teach the beat. Try using a scarf to help teach the beat of the song. Have the children bounce on the beat as they sing the song.

Later have them play the game with a scarf.  They can bounce scarves as they walk around the circle.

“Snail, Snail” is a traditional Kodaly game song that can also be used as a scarf activity.

Snail, snail, snail, snail,

Turn around and round and round.

TPT LINK: “Snail, Snail” Music Lesson

WEB SHOP LINK “Snail, Snail Music Lesson

MORE STEADY BEAT ACTIVITIES YOU CAN READ: Steady Beat Scarf Activities for Elementary Music Class

Body Percussion Activities also help children learn the beat through movement.

Using the springtime body percussion activity on YouTube I’ll have the students pat the beat the first time around.

SPRINGTIME BODY PERCUSSION LINK

Then we’ll go through the actions and practice them without the music or video.

Later you can have students make up their own patterns.

Or they can choose a move and show it during a short amount of time.

VIDEO PLAYALONGS USING BODY PERCUSSION

REINDEER BODY PERCUSSION

FREE RESOURCES TO HELP TEACH MUSIC THROUGH MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES

GET THE FREE HIGH/LOW MUSIC ACTIVITY

GET THE FREE SCARF MOVEMENT CARDS

GET THE FREE BODY PERCUSSION CARDS

RESOURCES THAT USE MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES TO TEACH MUSIC CONCEPTS

“FLYING HIGH AND LOW” SCARF AND RIBBON MOVEMENT SONG

KINDERGARTEN MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES

TRAINS ON THE BEAT        

TRAINS HIGH AND LOW       

TRAINS FAST AND SLOW    

TRAIN MOVEMENT ACTIVITY  

TRAINS LOUD AND SOFT    

TRAIN MUSIC LESSON BUNDLE   

I hope these ideas help you with your Kindergarten and First Grade lesson planning and show that you can teach music concepts through movement activities in kindergarten and first grade.

Let’s Move and Learn with Music