Music is a passion. There are excellent music activities for kids helping them to express themselves through music, dance, and movement. From babies to toddler, from preschoolers to school going kids, there are varieties of music activities that kids could be engaged in.
Kids learn about music, the notations, tempo, music theory, rhythm, instruments and many more via such music activities. Kids start appreciating music more. Music is like food for the soul. Be it any kind of pop, rock, hip hop or classical, kids love them as it helps in calming your mind and rejuvenate the senses. Music for kids has a positive effect on their overall development. It has also been proven by research that music training aids faster development of the brain. So why not add music as fun to kid’s life too? Let’s see what the music activities for kids to do are.
Music Games for Kids:
1. Make Your Own Music:
This is super fun to play activity where you have to denote the symbols to the sound they represent. For instance, a star could mean “sound of clap” and a circle could mean “snap the finger”, while square means “stomp of foot” and a triangle means sound from “hitting the desk”. Make these instructions available to all kids by writing it on a whiteboard. Add a few more of these sounds from kid’s own creativity. Now, let one by one child write their composition on the board while kids try to follow the ‘notes’ to create the music. There will be claps, snaps, stomps along with hitting the desk to make all the music. Kids are learning to coordinate here, their eyes, what they see, perceive and put it under action. It is a great music activity for kids to learn from.
2. Hide and Seek with Music:
As the name goes, this is also a fun activity for kids where the hide and seek is played with objects and is an excellent tool for children to improve their listening skills. You need a musical device or toy and hiding place to play. The objective of the game here would be for the child to find the toy by listening to its music. Turn the music from the toy ON and leave it in a place hidden where kids have to search and find. When kids keep playing this, their listening skills improve. You must keep variating the complication of the game by variating the toy and it’s hiding place.
3. Musical Masterpiece:
It is indeed a masterpiece as it brings out all the talent in the kids be it art, drawing or music. This is a game best played in groups or within the classrooms. You need a music player or could be a computer to play music. Sheets of paper, pencils and color pens for the students. Each student is given a sheet of the paper and color pencils. Instruct the children to start drawing when the music is played and stop when the music stops. You will have to take care of the music on and off here.
Now, next, leaving the paper pen and colors, they move to another desk and continue to draw and color the sheet until the music stops again. Have them to do this until you ask them to stop. Go back to their desk at the end and see their final product. This is one of the best music activities for kids to do at school.
4. Dance Copycat:
This is a fun dance game for kids where you play music for kids to dance on along with a video. The kids have to see and then replicate the steps of the video with their teams or groups. Or each team are given some time to prepare the music video dance steps and then compete with each other to win this dance copycat show.
5. Passing the Parcel Game:
This is a very popular party game where it is played to engage the kids for a longer time. You need a gift or any package, wrapping paper, and some toys or chocolates. You must wrap the package with as many layers as you can and possible. The more the layers, the more the fun and better rounds of the game. With each layer wrapped, add a toffee or a small toy or any gift in between randomly.
Now, make the kids sit in a circle and at the start of the music, the kids have to pass this parcel. When the music goes off they stop. The child holding this parcel exactly when the music stops should unwrap the top layer and see if they get any gift. The child moves out and the game then continues until the last layer is unwrapped. This is a super fun game played in very commonly even by elders.
6. Music Freeze:
One of the best music activities for the kids to play where all age group can participate in school. You will need a music player and space to play. When the music goes on, all kids dance at their places. When the music goes off, the kids have to free in whatever position they are and not move until the music goes on again. You can repeat this several times and pull out those kids who could not freeze. Prefer music for kids to dance to and play it once a week.
7. What Was That Sound?
As the name suggests, you should try this game if you want your kid to understand and identify the different instruments’ sound. Try this game and it will be fun. You will need a music player and different instrumental music for kids. Play the sounds of different instruments, to begin with. Then with a single instrument which has a distinct sound, play a simple song and ask the child to identify the instrument. With this, you can easily have your little genius recognize the different instruments in no time and keep complicating the game each level by playing not so distinct instruments one after the other to confuse them. This is a great homemade music game.
8. Draw the Music:
This is a very simple game but tells a lot about how music and mind works. You will need a sheet of paper and a pen or color pencils and a music player. Each student is given a sheet and a pencil or pen to draw on. Ask them to divide the paper into half. Play music preferably softer tone and ask them to first draw in the left side of the page and then stop. Next, play music with changed tempo (a bit faster or paced song) and have them to draw on the right side. When you compare both the sides of the paper for the same child, the left side will have neat and soft flowing lines whereas the right side would have big blobs and thicker lines.
9. Play the Yes/No Game:
A warm-up game that could work with a group of students or with choir groups. You need a large space to accommodate everyone and play this game. The parents or teacher would be the coordinator here who becomes the conductor saying a few musical or rhythmic phrases to start with and kids have to repeat. Next, replace the same notes with “yes” and “no” randomly. The task of the kids would be to say the opposite of what you say in the same tune and rhythm. For instance, if the conductor sings “yes, no, no, no, yes, no, no” the kids will have to sing “no, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes”. You can make it challenging for the kids by mixing up two words or using only one word and confuse them to have more fun. Doesn’t that make excellent mind exercise music for kids?
10. Perform Bell Dance:
Won’t it be a super cute and fun thing to do? You will need to attach bells to the shoes of the kids. Play pop music for kids to dance or play any children’s musical instrument for the kids to dance to it. Kids love to do this when it’s a rainy day outside or during holidays or celebration. Look at the cute little ones dancing to the music and having fun around.
11. Spin the Microphone:
Like you play spin the bottle game, similarly, spin the microphone is a great music activity for kids where you can customize the rules of play. You could play dare, stare or truth or turn it into a karaoke event. You need a mic and preferably wireless and list of activities that you dare the kids to do. Having the kids sit in a circle, you rotate the mic in the center carefully. When it stops, the one towards whom the mic points should dare to do the predefined activity. It is a super fun game to play for kids.
12. Musical Chair Reading:
Another common game that we play in parties or outings. But there is a little variation to the traditional musical chair game which involves reading or reciting. Thus this variation is best suited to be played in schools. You need chairs, music, and space. There has to be a common activity to decide for each kid to do like reading from a book or solving a problem from math or reciting a poem for younger kids.
Arrange the chairs (1 chair lesser than the total number of players) in a circle and then play the music. The kids have to walk around the circle of chairs in a row until the music is on. Once the music stops, the kids must sit in the closest of the chair immediately. The one child who is left standing has to read out the book’s paragraph or whatever the task was decided to be done. This is a fun game to play and goes until there is only one child left. This is also a very sporty way to have them to read or recite and an impartial way of picking kids for activities.
13. Music Trivia:
A smart game that has a quiz about music. Confused? This is an activity for students of a music class where you have trivia questions relating to music tunes or notes. It can as well be about your kid’s favorite band or singers or songs. You need a set of prepared questions and gifts. You could make it as a team event or like a quiz for single participants. When they play in teams, let them have fancy cool music related names for their teams. This serves as one of the best activities for revising music lessons. Give away gifts to the kids answering right such that they are motivated to play.
14. Karaoke Competition:
A simple kid friendly music activity for kids where they enjoy with friends and family. All you need is a microphone and music system. Songs for karaoke such that you choose children’s music for them to enjoy. You can play this via chit system, where you will write down the songs on the chits and circulate to have each kid pick one. Make teams or let them play individually and recognize the song and sing it correctly.
15. Read a Sound Story:
A very nice musical activity for kids where you need to choose the stories that have actions in it. Make available a variety of instruments like drums, shakers, keyboard, triangle, etc. The activity can be performed by two kids where one reads the story and as the story progresses; the other kid plays the instrument(s) accordingly to match up. Give them an example of it when the character of the story is sitting or is sad or sleeping, there must be a quiet sound to make, however, when the character is happy or walking, slightly louder music can be played. A louder one when the character is jumping, laughing or is joyous. It is great fun to listen to kid’s music skill and understand what they perceive the play as.
16. Song Movements:
“I’m a little teapot”, “If you’re happy and you know it claps your hands”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” etc. are few great kid’s poems which make amazing kid’s music activity. The simple verses of these songs could be changed into action for kid’s fun. You can as well have your kid create some new movements to it and dance. Play any of the kid’s favorite poem and depending on the rhythm and tempo of the song, call out the kid to follow directions. Or give the kid a stick or towel to wave it as per the beats of the music. Kids connect to the rhythm and learn listening skills through this activity.
17. Make Music Part of Kid’s Routine:
Play classical music or have them to feel the change in tempo. Teach them about the music and instruments by introducing them to some new instrument each time. Kids have a fascination for guitars and drums specially the boys. Encourage them to take professional classes and rejoice music. Play some mild music for kids to sleep as it relaxes them and helps the mind calm down and fall asleep.
Music activities for kids are always fun to do and you can never get bored as there is plenty to do. Hope you had fun trying these with your kids, please write to us your experience as it helps us to know more and also the mothers out there get some inspiration to try. Write to us via the comments section.
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