Great Activities for Older Children

WEEK 1 -

Waves of the Sea

The children follow your lead as you sing and move your arms back and forth like the waves of the sea, some of the gentle, and some of them crashing against the rocks.  The children are moving to the feel and the beat of the song while listening and sometimes singing the song with you.  It is a great way to review a song, or to introduce it for the first time.  This activity communicates the intensity and release moments of a song straight to the body level.  It helps children sense the feel of a song in a way that few other activities can do. 

WEEK 2-  

Draw the Song/Simple melody map (Choose the Right)

What do you see?  What do you notice?  The children look up at the wavy lines on the board with numbers at certain points along the line.

 "I see a wavy line."  "I see mountains."  "I see numbers."

What do the numbers have to do with this song?  

I sing the song and at certain words, I point to a number or a stick figure/simple picture.  (The numbers are there representing a word, as are the simple pictures.)  

Sing the song again, pointing to the representations as the children figure out what each of the numbers and figures mean. 

WEEK 3-

Eraser Pass 

Groups of three words are posted up at the front of the board.  I stand up and tell the children to erase the words that are NOT in the song. Once I give the rules of the game (they are short and sweet), I start singing and hand the eraser to a child.  He or she erases a word and hands the eraser to another child.  I keep singing as the children pass the eraser and erase a word. 

WEEK 4-

Body Rhythm patterns, and adding the challenge of Partner Body Rhythm Patterns

Here's the pattern.  I start moving to show the pattern.  The children copy my pattern.  I start to sing the song and continue to do the pattern to the beat.  The children follow and try to do the pattern as I sing.

At the end of the song, I ask, "Will you be my partner?"

A child comes up and joins me as I show him the pattern.  I use most of the pattern that we were doing before, with added partner rhythm opportunities.  

I sing as we do the pattern.  Half way through the song, I invite everyone to find a friend and we all do the partner rhythm together as I sing.