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Musical games are extremely fun for kids and teach the basics of rhythm and melody. Here are some music games for kids of all ages:
Play a fun dance song and encourage the kids to dance in any style they want to. During the course of the song, pause the song and tell the kids they have to hold their dance pose in a freeze until the music starts. Anyone who moves or falls out of the frozen pose gets eliminated. The kids will get a huge kick out of watching each other try their hardest to stay in their contorted pose!
Form a circle with the kids and sing along with the lyrics of “The Hokey Pokey”. Tell the kids to stick their foot, leg, elbows, hands, the circle and “shake it all about”, following the lyrics to the song. Do this until you are saying “stick your whole body in, stick your whole body out….”.
- Musical Chairs (ages 8-14)
Take several chairs and form them into a circle. Have one less chair than there are kids in the group. Get the kids to form a circle around the chairs. Play slow-tempo songs (waltz, classical music) and tell the kids to walk around the circle slowly to the tempo of the music. When the music stops, the kids have to quickly find a chair to sit in (since the circle is short one chair). The kid that didn’t get a chair has to leave the game and take a chair with him/her. Play the next round with a song that is slightly more upbeat. As the number of kids gets smaller each round, play music that is progressively faster and encourage them to move to the beat of the song. The “last kid sitting” wins the game!
This game follows the rhythm of the song “ Da Doo Ron, Ron” by The Crystals. Play the original song for the kids so they get familiar with how the lyrics go with the rhythm of the song. Have the kids line in a circle and start the song with any name you choose, for example, “I met her on a Sunday and her name was Sue”. Then the circle sings “Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron”. The next person in the circle comes up with the next lyric that rhymes with the name chosen, for example “She had to miss school cause she got to flu”. The group then sings again “Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron”. After that, the group leader (you) sings “Ba dom bump hey!” The next three people in the circle come up with 3 lyrics that also rhyme with Sue, like “She knew what to do”, “She saw Dr. Lou”, “Then she felt like new”. In between each of the three lyrics you sing “Ba dom bump, hey!” (just like the song). After the last three lyrics the whole group sings “Da doo ron ron ron, da doo run run!”
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