5 Strategies for Teaching Movement in Elementary Music

Teaching movement in elementary music is really so much fun.  After you get over the fear of doing it and step out of your comfort zone, you’ll notice yourself loving it more and more.  When you gain confidence in any area of your teaching, your students will respond and have just as much confidence.  Don’t worry if other teacher’s are doing more movement or less movement in their classrooms than you are.  If you’ve been fighting imposter syndrome, like we talk about in episode 19 of the podcast, remember to just be you and to have fun with it.

 

Creative Movement

There are many great ideas for doing creative movement in the music room.  Students can use scarves to paint high and low, come up with their own movement to music being played, and move around the room inside of their bubble.  The main goal is to let students explore using their bodies.  The music room may be the only place they’ve ever experienced moving their bodies creatively.  So, after you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone, let your students explore movement with you.

The Book of Movement Exploration is one of my all time favorite books for teaching creative movement.  Even if you’re new at teaching movement to your students, this book has great ideas that are easy to implement.   You can find a link to my favorite resources, including movement books, in this blog post.  While doing creative movement, play Classical music or other songs that don’t have words so students can concentrate on their movement and not the music.

 

Folk Dances

Folk dances are a great way to incorporate cooperative learning.   The thing with folk dances is sometimes they’re a bit tricky to teach.  When I taught music  at an inner city school, I had a lot of weird looks and push back from my students when I first began adding this to my teaching.  If it’s uncomfortable, staying consistent (and patient) with yourself and each other will go a long way.

To teach a folk dance,  start with teaching the song first.  After your students know the words and are singing the melody, it’s time to add the dance.  This may take one class period or five class periods, depending on how difficult that folk dance is.

The great thing about folk dances is that once you’ve taught them once, you can go back to them throughout the school year and students will remember the dance.

 

Mirror Movement

When your students mirror movement, it’s a great way to work on concentrating.  Basically, this is just what it sounds like.  You’ll stand in front of the class and any time you move your arm, leg, head, or whatever else, they mirror you.  To make it even more fun, you can have different students come up to lead the movement and the rest of the class mirrors them.

When mirroring movement, remind students to stay in their imaginary bubbles.  They can’t go into any other child’s bubble.  This is a great way to make sure students don’t bump into each other and are being conscious of spatial awareness.

 

Body Percussion

Body percussion is great for so many reasons.  It’s used to learn rhythms, steady beat, and even before implementing instruments.  It can even be used in place of instruments if you don’t have any in your classroom.

But, it’s also a great way to incorporate movement.  Think about “Stomp”.  They use so much body percussion while creating music.  Students can even improvise movements with body percussion or make up body percussion rhythms in small groups.  Kids love using their bodies to make music and what better way than clapping, snapping, stomping, and snapping.

 

Freeze Dance

Speaking of dancing, freeze dance is one of the best activities you can do in your classroom.  There’s really not much to it, but your students will ask you to do this activity again and again.  Basically, you just play a song and the kiddos can dance or use creative movement.  When you stop the song, they have to freeze.

This activity is great for those days where your students need to get their energy out or even as a reward for doing a great job.  For even more filler activities, check out this free cheat sheet.

 

How do you teach movement in your elementary music classroom? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.   

Also, I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it.

P.S.  Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher?  Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!