Classroom Management Tips for Music and Movement Activities

Boo! It’s time to twist and shout in Halloween music and movement activities! Get the tips here on how to have a successful movement activity in your classroom.

Halloween Freeze Dance Activity| Halloween Movement Activity |Halloween Brain Break | Sing Play Create

In this weeks post I’m sharing some ideas to help you with classroom management during movement activities.

Everyone loves to have a good time-children and adults, but when there’s over 20 students in a room, it’s time to set some boundaries.

Here are four ideas to help you manage your Halloween music and movement activities.

You can use puppets, a pre-recorded video of yourself, a power point presentation, or a “class room” talk to achieve good results. Remember, the fairy godmother of classroom management can’t grant your 3 wishes if you don’t tell her what you want-

And- it’s the same with children. Teacher need to give clear expectations to their students and set clear boundaries to keep everyone safe and give everyone a chance to learn.

CLICK HERE TO GET THIS FUN FREEZE DANCE AND MUSIC DYNAMICS ACTIVITIES

DEFINE PERSONAL SPACE

Many teachers use sit spots to give students a place to stand or sit. I have used these and really like the flexibility of them. I’ve also used a velcro strip to create 5 lines that students sit on. It also establishes teams and helps with keeping score or assigning tasks. Either way, you need a system to help students know what is their personal space.

Here is my affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase some of these things for your classroom.

Bean Bags are a really great activity to practice personal space. I wrote a song “It’s Time to Say Hello” to the Bean Bag in Your Hand” to help my younger students learn how to use the bean bag.

PRACTICE WITHOUT PROPS

Another great tip is to practice the moves before turning on the music. You may want to have students model the actions, dance moves or scarf paths first.

Providing the before hand practice can help everyone know exactly what they are supposed to do. And it gives you a chance to redirect and help those students who may not understand or need more help.

This Halloween Song “Stirring My Brew” is a really fun Kindergarten music activity. Play pretend and have everyone turn into a witch or wizard. Ask them to stir their brew. Play the music without showing any other actions. After that, teach the words and show they how to stir their brew!

Finally, sing and move with the music. Later students can sing alone!

Taking steps with your students will help everyone learn better.

SET CLEAR MOVEMENT EXPECTATIONS

It seems like there’s always going to be one or more students who are really good dancers and every time a movement activity comes up, they just want to do their favorite move instead of the action in the video or presentation.

When you take a minute to explain each action, you can make sure that everyone knows what you are looking for during the activity. You could have a special puppet “watch” to see who does the action the best, or choose students to model the correct actions.

You may want to look at the FREEZE DANCE and SCARF ACTIVITIES on the SING PLAY CREATE YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Setting clear expectations with visual and aural directions will help everyone have a better understanding of what to do and not to do.

Looking for some movement props?

SET CLEAR VOLUME LEVEL EXPECTATIONS

After all, movement activities are supposed to be fun! But, sometimes the volume levels can get out of hand.

I have a rule that when there is music on, there is NO talking. Believe it or not, this rule wasn’t that hard for me to enforce.

Once the whole school knew that that was the rule, it carried on through the years.

Honestly, if the kids started talking, I turned the music off and waited.

Without going into all of the classroom management rules I had and what I would do if someone didn’t stop talking (I had a plan for that!) You can give this a try. You can use signs, lights, your hands- whatever tricks you can use to have the students focus on moving and not making noise.

One of my favorite lines was “we’re here to make music- not noise!”

What are some things you can do?

HAVE FUN!

Finally, have fun. I do my movement activities with the kids. I pace myself so that I can keep up with movement throughout the day.

The teacher needs to have a positive attitude about movement!

So, wear comfortable shoes ( I wear Avia tennis shoes a lot).

Wear comfortable clothing ( I only wear things that can stretch.)

Wear a step counter and reward yourself for a certain number of steps you can get in the day.

When you are smiling, so are your students!

I’m hoping that these ideas help you in your music and movement activities!

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