Music and Movement for Preschoolers, Toddlers and Kindergarten Children:
Preschoolers, toddlers and young children love music and they equally love to dance around as a fun way to express themselves.
This dancing around could come in the form of jumping, spinning, rolling, flapping their arms, crawling and a variety of other movements.
Preschool children and young kids have no shortage of energy to burn and it’s important that we help the pre k children and toddlers to try and channel this energy and express themselves using creative movement activities.
These movement activities can be more structured or kind of a freestyle form of movement with music to help get the preschool children in the mood to dance and move.
Check out some simple ideas for musical movement below.
Music and Movement Ideas for Kids:
There are a lot of different styles of fun, high energy music that can be used with children when implementing music and movement ideas for kids.
Music Selections:
You could get kids music without any words or you could use music that has actual words and lyrics. There are songs and cds that are specifically for movement activities for kids to move around and dance.
Some music for preschoolers is more specific and may tell children what to do (eg.) jump, and other music may not. Some music simply sets a certain mood or emotion for the children to move to. It all really depends on what you want for the children.
Using Props for Music & Movement Ideas:
When setting up music and movement lesson plans for preschoolers and young kids like this you can ‘think outside the box’ and use different props. Some prop ideas to use with your movement activities are:
- Colorful Ribbons
- Colorful streamers
- Colorful scarves
- Paper fans
- Peacock feathers or other ‘larger’ colorful feathers
- Colorful tissue paper
- Wind pinwheels
More Theme Specific Movement Props: (as shown in our menu on the left)
- Animal masks etc..
Making/Using Simple Musical Instruments:
Musical Shakers:
You can take the time to make simple musical instruments like musical shakers for preschoolers to use to try and shake along to the beat of the music. You can do this with simple containers of different sizes filled to certain levels with various things like popcorn kernals, soybeans or rice. The different sizes will make for different sounds.
Drums:
Use an old ice cream container or other container. Cut a hole in the bottom or bottom side to allow some air to escape when the child beats the drum. Use a wooden spoon or drum stick etc. to allow children to beat along with the music.
These movement activities for preschool and kindergarten child can be used with or with out props. Props ONLY add to the fun. Props like colorful scarves and ribbons, pinwheels and more will definitely get the children moving and expressing themselves through various movements. Add in some music and you have musical movement activities that will keep preschoolers, kindergarten children and toddlers active for a long, long time.
The great thing about these musical movement ideas is that they can be done inside or outside and they get children up and moving. These activities keep your kids active. Give these movement activities a try and let your kids express themselves to the music with or without these fun props.