Search results
People also ask
What types of music activities can a preschooler do?
How long are music activities for preschoolers?
Why is music important for preschoolers?
Should you teach music to young children?
- Dance With Me. It doesn't get any easier than this. Clear a large space and crank up the music. Bring out an assortment of fun toys—hula hoops, bean bags, rubber balls, scarves—and start dancing!
- Freeze Dance. It's as simple as it sounds. Blast some of your kid's beloved tunes and dance to your heart's content. Then, when they least expect it, yell "freeze!"
- Strike Up the Band. Gather up all the music-making instruments you can find. Don't have a piano or a drum at the ready? No worries, homemade is always more fun anyway.
- Draw What You Hear. Cue up different types of music. Give your child some paper and different colored markers or crayons. Start the music and ask them to draw what they are hearing.
- Peas Porridge Hot
- The Ants Go Marching One by One
- The Crabfish
- Johnny Works with One Hammer
- Shake and Shake and Freeze
- Found Sound Band
- Herman The Worm
- Aquarium Movement from Carnival of The Animals
- Mother Goony Bird
- Bumping Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon
This simple chant has been around for literal centuries, and it’s one of the first action songs I teach my preschool students. The words go like this: Peas porridge hot. (Ah!) Peas porridge cold. (Br!) Peas porridge in the pot Nine days old. – Some like it hot. (Ah!) Some like it cold. (Br!) Some like it in the pot Nine days old. With this chant, I...
When it comes to movement activities in preschool, we really want the kids to do two main things: 1. Move to the steady beat 2. Move freely, matching the feeling of the music Of these, the most important thing, in my opinion, is keeping a beat. This song is one that most people have heard of, and it’s great for steady beat movement. March around th...
The Crabfish is a great songbook with a haunting melody. Either sing the folk song and book yourself or listen to it and follow along with the recording at the link. Or better yet, do both! This is one of my favorite songs to do with any level, and it’s a regular in my preschool classroom. Check out The Crabfish lyricsand history in my article at t...
Movement games where we add in more moves, taking a simple song and making it even more fun for music time is always a blast. This song adds in motions and works on gross motor skills. It’s silly, and the kids love it.
Here is a game with a bit more practice on fine motor skills for preschool on top of the musical skills we work on. Listen and move to the video first, and then break out the egg shakers. Egg shakers (or shaker eggs, as they’re sometimes called), for those who don’t know, are plastic eggs with little beads inside, just like maracas.
I love doing Found Sound Bands. I take a simple song and add a steady beat. Then, I show them how we don’t need “real” instruments to keep the beat. We can use a lot of different sounds to make a unique band. After setting a few safety ground rules, let kids explore and find their own ways to make music and play different instruments. This is alway...
Sometimes, you just have to be silly. A lot of preschool music is creating fun, musical experiences where the students can hear different types of music and practice the steady beat. Herman the Worm is just another example of this (with emphasis on the silly part!). Check out the video and learn it yourself to sing with them. You may want to slow i...
Classical music and expressive movement shouldn’t be ignored. Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals is one of the perfect pieces for this age level. It’s short enough that it’ll hold their attention, and there are enough changes in the song to make the movement go well. Check out more directions for what I do with this (and other classical pieces b...
I decided to bookend the previous preschool music lesson with two silly activities, I guess! This silly song is similar to Johnny Works With One Hammer. We move to a steady beat and keep adding moves until we look pretty silly.
Maybe it’s just music teachers from my generation, or maybe it’s just me, but I love Raffi. His fun songs and shows for kids were part of why I wanted to become a music teacher. This song is one of my favorites of all the ones he’s done. You get to bump up and down and invite students to pick different tools (or silly things) to use for movement pr...
- Build community while teaching name and letter recognition. Morning meeting or circle time is a great way to greet children and get the day started whether you are in your brick and mortar classroom or teaching class virtually.
- Have fun teaching children to imitate and follow directions. Learning how to imitate and follow directions are important skills that will follow preschoolers into their careers.
- Help children learn body parts and develop strong drawing and cognitive skills. Mat Man is a beloved character who helps children learn body parts as they build him while singing the “Mat Man” song.
- Teach and reinforce fine motor skills as children learn how to properly hold a crayon. What better way to teach children crayon grip than with a song? The “Crayon Song” teaches children to hold the crayon with a tripod grip by telling them exactly where to place their fingers.
- Found Sound Band. I LOVE found sound bands. For this activity, take any favorite song they know and ask them to keep the beat on different parts of their bodies.
- Freeze Dance. Freeze dance is a simple but fun game. All you need is a music player and space to dance. The premise is simple: when they hear music, they dance.
- Johnny Works With One Hammer. This familiar song is a blast to do with preschool and Kindergarten kids. It reinforces the steady beat so well and has silly movements.
- Draw What You Hear. If you’ve been in my room for a time or read a lot of my material, you’ll know I love to let students at young ages just draw what the music sounds like to them.
So, my devoted readers, there you have 30 amazing preschool musical activities that will engage your little ones with music! Long gone are the days of just singing a song over and over! Break up to monotony with some of the activities. And don’t forget to sign up below to receive the free, printable PDF of all these activities!
Feb 7, 2024 · 19 Music Activities For Preschoolers: Crafts, Sensory Plays, Games, Worksheets, And Video Resources. Musical activities are fun, entertaining, and beneficial to our children’s cognitive and emotional development. They can progress foundational skills in areas of language, reading, writing, creativity, math, and emotion regulation.
Three Types of Musical Activities for Preschoolers. Simply turning on some music for a preschooler is a good start, but you’ll need to do more to make progress with actually teaching the basics of music to a young person. With that in mind, I’d like to touch on three types of musical activities that are great for kids in the preschool age range.
