How to Use Scarf Activities to Teach Music Concepts

Swooshing, waving, tossing, wiggling scarves FAST, SLOW, HIGH, LOW can help students make learning connections and have fun at the same time. In this post I’m sharing some ways on how to use scarf activities to teach music concepts.

EXPLAIN HOW TO SHOW THE MUSIC CONCEPT

It may sound easy, but it’s really not- it takes time to refine the procedures to integrate movement and learning together.

It’s important to be CLEAR of your expectations and the learning outcomes. I CAN statements really help students and teachers.

“I CAN SHOW HIGH AND LOW using my scarf”.

It’s one thing to wave a scarf around, and another for students to have the ability to SHOW music dynamics.

MODEL HOW TO SHOW THE MUSIC CONCEPT

Use appropriate music to help you teach what is FAST/SLOW, or HIGH/LOW.

Try modeling without a scarf and have the students use their whole bodies to SHOW the music concept. Then, MODEL AGAIN

using a scarf.

Also ask other students to model the movements.

SHOW THE MUSIC CONCEPTS

Now it’s time for the students to experiment and make connections with their own movement and what they think HIGH and LOW, FAST/SLOW mean.

Allow students to experiment and learn by doing a lot of movement.

USE A VARIETY OF TEACHING STRATEGIES

You can also reach all your students by offering different types of activities besides movement.

Create a variety of learning opportunities using materials like; worksheets, flashcards, stories, music selections.

Need Scarves?

REFLECT ON LEARNING GOALS

At the end of every activity have students reflect on their learning. Stay focused on the learning goals during this part of the activity. It’s easy to get distracted! Students can sit in a circle, or even be in line ready to leave and use their hands to SHOW the music concept. SHARE what they learned, HOW they learned and their feelings about the activity.

Read this post to get specific ways to do this: SCARF MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES

CONNECT MATH AND MUSIC WITH MOVEMENT

I believe that integrating movement with learning music and math concepts is one way to teach children the basics.

In this resource I’ve included math directional/positional word activities as well as music dynamics activities for preschool and music teachers to help children learn these concepts at an early age.

REVIEW AND REPEAT FOR LEARNING

Learning isn’t a one time thing. It’s super important to give many learning opportunities.

You can use the scarf activity as a warm up and have students add in their HIGH/LOW VOICES.

It’s easy to review using a variety of materials that are in this resource. Coloring sheets, activities, video and flashcards give the teacher some great tools to help students learn the concepts.

Check out this BLOG POST ON SCARF ACTIVITIES with more ideas!

Or, have the children move their feet FAST and SLOW along with their scarf.

Continuing to use a variety of activities and repetition will pay off in your music classes. Your students will GET IT!

Get the resource Superhero Scarf Activity: Dynamics, Directional Words, Coloring Activities HERE!

Thanks for reading!

I hope you’ll share this post on how to teach music concepts using scarves.