Bean Bag Music Games & Activities: PreK-5

Bean Bag music games and activities to help children learn music concepts, teamwork and have fun.

BEAN BAG MUSIC GAMES & ACTIVITIES: PREK-5

This post will help you learn about how to use bean bags in your home or at school to teach music skills.

Let’s use our whole bodies to play with bean bags. 

Learn about music with bean bag games.

Have fun and work together to make music with bean bag activities.

I’ll share 5 activities for PreK-5th grades.

MOVEMENT SONG

STEADY BEAT- K-5 VARIATIONS

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS GAME

NOTES ON THE STAFF GAME

MOVEMENT SONG

Whole body warmup: “There’s a Chocolate Chip Cookie on my Head”

Do you have a bean bag? Can you touch your head? Your belly? Your toes? Sing and move with me as I sing “There’s a chocolate Chip cookie on My Head!”
It’s on SING PLAY CREATE SPOTIFY!

An on YouTube Sing Play Create Kids Music Channel

K-3 STEADY BEAT ACTIVITIES

Steady Beat Pass the Bean Bag activity that you can vary according to the grades or abilities.

At the beginning, the younger the child, the smaller the movement.

Have children just toss in their own hands up or side to side.

Use a drum to help students learn to pass on the beat.

Play nice and steady and then switch tempos. Don’t switch too often so that everyone can keep up!

Next, pass around the circle. Demonstrate how you want them to pass. On the floor? Hand to hand?

Practice with the drum and then begin with some easy to find the steady beat music.

RADETSKY MARCH

In this first video the conductor is playing around with the audience. They are only supposed to clap when the music is LOUD. A wonderful Kindergarten music activity!

In this video Andre Rieu plays violin and there are scenes of the outdoor concert. Very entertaining concert!

In 1st through 3rd grades you can use the activity to teach dynamics.

LEARN THE TEMPO WORDS

LARGO (VERY SLOW)  PRESTO (VERY FAST)

Choose 2 music selections.  Try using some classical music.

LARGO: MOONLIGHT SONATA by Beethoven

MOONLIGHT SONATA

PRESTO: Les TOREADORS from Carmen by Bizet

LES TOREADORS

After the children can pass around the circle easily with one selection, then change the tempo of the beat.

Ask them to tell you the tempo.

I recommend not switching too much and give them time to really understand what they are doing.

Another piece to use is “Hungarian Dance” by Brahms. It has varying tempos already and you won’t have to start and stop the music.

HUNGARIAN DANCE

For a fun test of listening and showing the tempo skills, try using “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg.

Tempo and dynamics are very important in In the Hall of the Mountain King.

The piece starts slowly and softly and gradually increases in volume and speed until the end when the piece finishes very fast and very loud.

IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

3-5 HOT POTATO PASS AND PLAY

We’re going to switch up this familiar game to show off our music skills.

Pass the bean bag around to the music.

When the music stops-who ever has the bean bag goes to the middle of the circle or to a station and plays or shows a rhythm, melody, body percussion, rhythm sticks, rhythm cards.

I recommend you choose something you are working on in class for them to show.

You can also play this game with more than one bean bag. Wait to add in another bean bag after 2 or 3 times around the circle.

This game makes an excellent assessment activity.

NAME THE NOTES ON THE STAFF

CREATE A STAFF ON THE FLOOR USING TAPE OR YARN.

Toss the bean bag and students have to name the note.

I organize them in 2 lines- one to toss and one to name the note.

If you haven’t had a chance to teach all the notes-then use a poster or draw on the board a staff and note names.

This game can be a fun way to introduce new notes too!

Discuss SKIPS/STEPS/NOTE NAMES/SOLFEGE NAMES as well as build chords using more bean bags.

I had a staff on the floor for the 2nd half of the school year to use with 4-6th grades.

There are many more ways to use bean bags in the music classroom and to learn music concepts.

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