Easy to Play Bean Bag and Ball Games for Music Class

In today’s post I’m sharing some easy to play bean bag and ball games for music class. These are super interactive activities, yet simple and easily implemented and you’ll be able to scaffold all of the ideas from kindergarten all the way up to sixth grades. Let’s get playing!

EASY TO PLAY BEAN BAG AND BALL GAMES FOR MUSIC CLASS

You can use all different types of balls or beanbags. They don’t have to be these, and you can use either or for all of these games. The activities are going to focus on playing the beat.

Now, you may not have a nice brand-new bouncy ball to use in your classroom, but you might have some things that can act like balls. It could be something like a scrunchie. Baby toy balls will work. Or even just these cheap rubber balls. A scrunchie borrowed from the PE teacher, some basketballs, rubber balls, or tennis balls will work too.

I found using balls in the music classroom is super successful. And because I was a sports kid, I like to use the bouncy ball too. I’ll be sharing some different ways you can use balls and beanbags, but you can adapt all of the activities to one or the other. You’re not going to be able to bounce a beanbag, so instead, you would toss it.

There are just some simple things and ways you can use this in your classroom that are going to keep your students super engaged and excited about music activities.

EASY PASSING GAMES

Our first activity is going to be just a super simple passing game. So choose your prop, and then let’s get the beat on. I

Everyone is going to be sitting in a circle, and I like to have them open their hands, and we’re going to place them on our knees.

When we pass on the beat, we’re going to be passing like this to the next person.

I have found it super helpful to get out a hand drum and play the drum so they know when to pass on the beat.

You can even just have them practice with the drum and no music.

UPPER GRADES ADAPTATION

To liven things up and challenge your older students in upper grades—fourth, fifth, and sixth—get the balls out.

We’re going to have them pass the ball on the beat around the circle. Challenge them to keep it going. Play a little tempo game. Change your tempo as you’re playing. See if they can keep it up. And then also slow down when you slow the tempo down.

So that’s the very basic activity. The next level is going to be adding in more than one prop. Now, I wouldn’t suggest this for too young of grades. So this is something that you can definitely do with those upper grades.

We’re going to use more than one prop. If you’re using balls, stick to all balls. Once they get the first one to go around the circle—once the ball has gone around the circle—then you can add in a second one. So give it about six to eight people apart, and then add another prop. They need to keep it on the beat without skipping a beat, without holding it too long.

After one get’s around to the 4th to 8th person, add another one. See if you can get three or four props going at the same time and have them continue to pass on the beat.

SUPER CHALLENGE

Now for a super challenging time: give everyone a prop. Balls are a little bit hard to do because they’re going to roll, and it might be hard to find enough balls for everyone in the classroom. So you may want to adapt the activity to using a beanbag.

The first part of the activity is going to be everyone just tossing on the beat. Tossing on the beat versus passing is something you can also do in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.

Where we’re going to adapt it and change it so that it is more challenging for upper grades is by having everybody toss, but then in those upper grades, we’re going to have them try to pass all of them together. I would start with the technique of starting with one, then two, up to ten beanbags so that every other kid—or 15, whatever it is—has one. Pass those around and see if they can keep it going before you go to everybody passing on the beat.

HOW TO SCAFFOLD THE ACTIVITY

So you can take a simple game and scaffold it in difficulty across all the grade levels. You can use the same music, the same hand drum, the same basic ideas. This is going to really help you simplify your teaching, but also have very interactive and challenging activities that your students can do—and that they will love. They’ll want to come to music class and do them all the time.

KINDER-FIRST Give each student a prop.

1 Practice tossing on the beat.

2 Practice tossing to a buddy.

3 Practice passing one prop around the circle or line.

SECOND-FIFTH Do the challenge activities.

MUSIC BALL GAMES

Here are some more ways to use balls in your classroom, and we’re just going to work on the beat today. If you’re working in third grade and up and want to use balls, there are a couple of different ways that you can use them just to practice working on the beat.

Now I like to play games—and a lot of kids do too. I found relay games to be super successful in my classroom. My kids really liked them, and we had a great time playing them. I feel like the engagement was super high, and even the ones who may not really be into games still liked playing them. That seemed to work for almost everybody.

What you can do is start off with a simple two teams. Each team has a basketball, and they’re going to pass it on the beat. Again, I recommend using a hand drum just so that they hear it and know they’re not trying to figure it out—especially if this is the first time you’ve done it.

Here’s couple of ways to play this game. You can do that two different ways—or three or four, actually. Or try to have them stand side to side and pass this way. And you can have the two lines facing each other so they can both be passing at the same time down the line—or actually, they’d be going in opposite directions.

You could have it be who does it the best. They can just applaud for the team that does it the best. Or you can have them stand facing the back of the person in front of them. You can pass under, over, or to the side—and just have them passing on the beat. Just remember to keep a tempo that’s fair to them and helps them enjoy the activity.

Then you can change the tempo and make it more challenging as they get to know the activity a little better.

BOUNCE TO A BUDDY

The next way you can use balls to play the beat with older grades is to have them stand in two parallel lines. They’ll have a buddy, and we’re going to bounce on the beat. So we’ll start with the two lines and get them used to bouncing to somebody else, making it only one bounce to the other person.

LEVEL IT UP!

Then you can up the level or challenge it by having them take one step back from each other so the distance is a little further. That works especially well with smaller balls like tennis balls and the small rubber balls because they’re going to have to really be careful where the ball is going to go.

Next, you can put everybody in a circle, and you can have someone in the middle of the circle with the ball. That person can take turns bouncing to people around the circle. You want to have everybody pat or clap the beat: bounce, catch, beat, beat—bounce, catch, beat.

BOUNCE ON THE BEAT

You might tell them, “We’re going to bounce the ball every fourth beat, but it has to be on the beat.” So they have to be fair and not bounce it too high because they want the person to catch it. A more advanced version of that is to bounce it to them and they trade places—or you can toss it to them and they trade places.

No matter which of these activities you try, I’m hoping they help you get through the end of the school year with fun memories!

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BALL AND BEAN BAG ACTIVITY SONGS

You’ll find all these activity songs on your favorite music channels.

Bean Bag Activity Songs for Children

There’s A Chocolate Chip Cookie On My Head

My Ball

BEAN BAG AND BALL ACTIVITY RESOURCES

1-Bean Bag Activities and Games: Music, PE, Classroom Community TPT LINK

Bean Bag Activities and Games: Music, PE, Classroom Community WEB SHOP LINK

Music Class Bean Bag Games-Assessment, Review, Brain Breaks K-6 TPT LINK

Music Class Bean Bag Games-Assessment, Review, Brain Breaks K-6 SHOP LINK

2-Bean Bag – Buggy Bean Bag Activities and Games TPT LINK

Bean Bag – Buggy Bean Bag Activities and Games SHOP LINK

“Snowballs Everywhere!” Movement & Bean Bag Activity TPT LINK

“Snowballs Everywhere!” Movement & Bean Bag Activity SHOP LINK

3-Bean Bag Activity Song: “There’s a Chocolate Chip Cookie on My Head” TPT LINK

Bean Bag Activity Song: “There’s a Chocolate Chip Cookie on My Head” SHOP LINK

4-Bean Bag Game and Activities Bundle: Music, Preschool, PE, Movement Classes TPT LINK

Bean Bag Game and Activities Bundle: Music, Preschool, PE, Movement Classes SHOP LINK

Music and Movement Ball Activity Song: “My Ball” TPT LINK

Music and Movement Ball Activity Song: “My Ball” SHOP LINK

READ ABOUT BEAN BAG AND BALL MUSIC GAMES

BEAN BAG MUSIC GAMES & ACTIVITIES: PREK-5

Back to School Music Activities with Movement Props

10 WAYS TO USE BALLS IN MUSIC CLASS

Winter Bean Bag and Ball ActivitiesFun and Easy Music Activities with Balls in Elementary Music Class

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