Music and Movement

trying-to-beat-the-heat

With these extreme outdoor temperatures, our students aren’t getting very much active movement.  So, we decided to have a dance party in our gymnasium today!  We took a few cds, scarves, ribbons and got out hoola-hoops.  For 20 minutes, we let the children pick what they wanted to move with, if anything, and just played some children-friendly music.  Once we were done, we all went to the water fountain to replenish.

The children enjoyed it, and seemed less “figedity” in class for the rest of the day.  As long as this heat stays, we are going to do this every morning!

tap-your-sticks

A great music activity is “Tap Your Sticks” by Hap Palmer.  You play the song, and the children can follow along to the lyrics with their wooden sticks.

http://youtu.be/M-UKTeWNgOk

We did it in our kindergarten class and the children enjoyed it so much, they asked to do 3 times in a row!  I plan on doing this activity quite often, or at least as long as the children remained interested in it and are still asking for the song!

a-remembrance-day-song

Remembrance Day is a very serious topic, and one that can be too much for kindergarten students to understand.  In our class, we decided to focus on the idea of peace to help our children celebrate this special day.  For the last week, we have been singing the song “Do You Know Where I Find Peace?”, which can be found at:

http://www.songs4teachers.com/peace1.pdf

a-shape-song

For the last 2 weeks, the children and I have been singing this song:

Tune:  Farmer in the Dell

“A circle’s like a ball.
A circle’s like a ball.
Round and round
It never stops,
A circle’s like a ball.

A square is like a box,
A square is like a box.
It has 4 sides,
They are the same.
A square is like a box.

A triangle has 3 sides.
A triangel has 3 sides.
Up the mountain,
Down and back.
A triangle has 3 sides.

A rectangle has 4 sides.
A rectangle has 4 sides.
Two are long and
Two are short.
A rectangle has 4 sides.”

We sing it a few times a week and the children draw the shapes in the air with their finger as we sing.