Movement and Game Activities

1. Hot Potato (Grades 2-5): Sit or stand in a circle and pass a stuffed animal around. Stop the
music and whomever has the stuffed animal when the music stops has to sit outside of the main
circle. When there are about five people in the “people who are out” circle, have them start
passing a stuffed animal, and when the music stops that person gets to rejoin the main circle.
Begin adding more stuffed animals to the main circle to pass until you have five or so. Play until
you have a winner. The winner from the main circle can then play off the winner from the
“people who are out circle” (last person with the stuffed animal) for a sticker.
2. Toss the Penguin (Grades 3-5): First demonstrate or remind what throwing “underhand” is, and
if they throw overhand they are out. Also show the difference between “tossing” and “throwing
high or fast” and they are out if they throw high or fast. The game is really very simple: Stand in
a circle. When the music starts, they toss the penguin across and around to others in the circle.
Anyone who drops it is out, anyone making an uncatchable toss is out, and anyone who has the
penguin when the music is stopped. To keep wiggly classes engaged, start a seated “out circle”
to the side and pass a stuffed animal. The last person to have the stuffed animal at the very end
of the game gets a sticker, as does the winner of the main game.
3. Copy Cat (Grades 2-5): Students stand in a circle. One student is sent out of the circle and told
to turn away and cover their eyes (this person is the Guesser). While they are doing this, silently
pick a person to be the Copy Cat. After the Copy Cat is chosen, put on some music with a nice
groove and let it play. The Copy Cat makes up moves that everyone in the circle has to copy
without looking at the Copy Cat. The Copy Cat needs to change moves every twenty seconds or
so. The Guesser stands in the middle and watches and tries to figure out who the Copy Cat is.
Copy Cat then becomes the Guesser and a new person is picked to be the Guesser.
4. Freeze Dance (Grades K-5….yes, they all like it!). Pick one student to be the judge. The judge
sits on my bench in my spot in the front of the room. (Judges always sit on benches!). Students
dance and move to the music when it is played, and freeze when the music is stopped. When
they are called out, they come and sit on the floor by the judge. One foot must always be on the
floor when dancing or freezing unless they are doing a small jump or leap (no hands or bodies
on the floor, in other words). There is no arguing with the judge! At the end of each song, have
the judge pick another judge (boys pick girls, girls pick boys) or the winner becomes the judge if
there is a winner. I usually play with two different songs so for about ten minutes.
5. Stick Dance (Grades 1-5): Finding a “Stand Up/Pair Up” buddy (if there is an extra kid, make
that child the judge). Each pair gets one lummi stick. Each pair has to move about the room,
dancing, while the music is playing. They must always be holding onto the stick, or they are out.
Practice for a few minutes before playing for real.
6. Marching Math (Grades 2-5): Play any song with a nice, steady beat. Students march around
the room to the steady beat. Each time, when the music is stopped, roll the giant dice cube.
The number produced by the cube (1,2,3,4,5 or 6) is how many people have to form a group (in
a small circle with toes touching, other than if the number is one). Any one left over is out and
they take turns rolling the giant dice each time. You can extend by substituting
subtraction/addition problems (“5-2!!!”, etc.).
7. Duck, Duck, Goose (Grades K and 1….but the older ones like it, too). Seated in a circle, one child
goes around the outside touching each student in the circle’s head and calling “Duck, duck,
duck, duck” until they decide on a “goose”. The goose then chases the selector around the
circle once. In the music room, my rule is that they must skip, gallop, walk or hop they may not
run.
8. Musical Scarves (late K-5th grade). I don’t have enough nearly enough chairs (no do I want
them) so I got creative. Each child has a movement scarf (on the shelf under the gong). Arrange
the scarves on the floor in the middle and each child sits on one. Then have them stand and
move in one direction as a group around the scarves (just like musical chairs). Take out one
scarf each time until there is a winner. First child out is the “Judge”, second child out is the
“Scarf-getter”. All others come and sit by the teacher. Play the each time, let them move
around, then stop it. Anyone playing too roughly is out. I use this game and Four Corners to
play classical music or jazz that I want them to become familiar with…even the Nashville
Bluegrass Band!!!
9. Four Corners (late 1st grade-5th grade). Designate four corners in your room. My room is:
CORNER ONE, by the front door. CORNER TWO, by the sink. CORNER THREE, by the
SmartBoard, CORNER FOUR, under the empty TV stand that hangs from the ceiling. One person
sits in the middle in a chair and covers their eyes (they are “it”). When the music plays, students
move from corner to corner. When the music stops, they must go to the closest corner and
freeze. “It” then calls out a number (1,2,3, or 4) and everyone in that corner is out. People who
are out go and sit in the middle around the person who is “It”. Then play the music again….keep
playing until you have a winner. The winner becomes “It”. Another great game for playing
wonderful classical music, jazz, opera (yes, I play opera, country, bluegrass, avant garde, any
style kids would never choose to listen to on their own). NOTE We have added to this game and
we now call it “Survivor”….besides the four corners, I’ve added a “cave” (under my long table
where I keep the computer/printer), a “cavern” (in a little storage area I created by moving
shelves around and “the castle” (between two rows of tubanos and other drums, put a smaller
drum in the middle of the row to make a window opening they can peer out of).
10. Pass the Pick (K and 1st). “Hot Potato” using a guitar pick (use a stuffed animal if you don’t have
a guitar pick, but the pic is small and works on the kid’s fine motor skills to pass it). Have them
sit in a circle. Pass the pick from child to child while the music plays. Whoever has it when the
music stops is out, and whoever drops it is out. Students who are out come and sit by the
teacher.
11. Shark (3rd-5th grades). Sit in a circle, holding the parachute at about waist height. One student
goes under the parachute and is the Shark. Play the music from “Jaws” OR do what I do….I play
it live on the keyboard and put kids from the group playing the drums and one flickering the
lights. When the music stops, the Shark “attacks” one student. This student gets to do a “death
scene” (the only one allowed to be dramatic and loud, although a LOT of excited giggling and
occasional shrieks of delight happen during this game). The “dead” student becomes “The
Shark” and the old Shark goes back to the circle OR if using drummers goes out and trades
places with a drummer or the light person. When they’ve been the shark, they sit criss-cross
applesauce. If they’ve not been the Shark, they sit with their legs straight out to show the Shark
they’ve not been killed yet. The great thing about playing the game this way is that when you
have the huge 4th and 5th grade classes they don’t all fit into a circle so you can pull out kids to
play the drums.
12. The Wizard (late 2nd grade-5th grade). My students know the story, but here it is just in case
you don’t know it. You only have to tell the story once, then the students tell new kids and
explain it to each other. “A wizard was working in his lab one dark and stormy night and
realized that he was out of magic powder. He realized he had to trudge all the way up to his
special cave where he mined the magic powder, and he had to walk through big, creepy trees to
get there. So he puts on his cape and his magician’s hat and makes the long, scary walk. He
mines the magic powder, loads it into his pouch, puts his cape and hat back on and runs home
as fast as he can. When he gets home, he realizes that his cape and pouch has been ripped and
 most of his magic powder has spilled out. He realizes that he must go find the powder, or the
trees that have absorbed it. Any tree that has absorbed the powder and is found out is
“chopped down” by The Wizard and is out (in the woodpile)”. RULES: Pick a “Wizard”. While
the music “Danse Macabre” is playing, The Wizard looks through the trees for trees that are
dancing (so, the trees “dance” when the Wizard isn’t looking and freeze when he/she is). If the
Wizard finds a moving tree, they are “chopped down” by The Wizard and have to go to “The
Woodpile”. Winner becomes the next Wizard. My recording of “Danse Macabre” lasts about
eight minutes, and we play until the song is done.
13. Limbo (3rd-5th grade). Two students hold a bass “C” boomwhacker or a long stick. Explain and
demonstrate the correct way to move under the stick (one at a time, in a line). Also tell them
never to strain themselves if they are out, they are out. Lower the stick after each kid has gone
around once until there is a winner. Play the music “The Limbo Dance”.
14. Activated Freeze Dance (late K-5th). Play good dancing music. Pick two or three kids to be the
“activators”. They move through the scattered children and use a dancing “scarf” to
activate/deactivate dancers. Students scatter and stand like statues unless they are “activated”
by a scarf, they then dance until they are “deactivated”. At the end of each song, pick new
“activators”.
15. Tennis Balls on a Scarf Canopy (late 2nd-5th grades). Pretty simple, but kids LOVE it. Pick one
child to be the “shagger” (this child picks up the balls that will inevitably come off of the
canopy). Have the students stand in a circle, with the scarf canopy stretched out between them
at chest height. Starting with one tennis ball, place it on the scarf canopy and have them roll it
to the music adding up to a total of 4-5 tennis balls (I USE “THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE
WALTZ”as the music or other songs that go from smooth and rolling to choppy and bouncy),
rolling it/them when the music is smooth and bouncing it/them when the music is choppy or
bouncy. KIDS LOVE THIS GAME and would play it all day. For added fun, have one kid get under
the canopy and hit the tennis balls from underneath (not too hard or they hit the ceiling).
16. Hidden Instrument Game (K-5th). Hide a bunch of percussion instruments behind the piano.
One student goes behind and plays one of them for a bit, then comes out and picks a student to
guess the instrument. Trade places. Play until all have had a turn. Display pictures of the
instruments around the room (I put the pictures on the SmartBoard so they can look over and
see them all and think about how they sound).
17. Spin the Kid (K and 1st). Have the students sit in circle. In the middle, put your desk chair (or
conductor’s chair is even better). Have a child sit in the chair and cover their eyes. In their
hand, they are holding a lummi stick (I tell them it’s a “magic stick” they like that). Spin them a
bit, then stop and the stick is pointing at someone in the circle. That kid says “Hello” or “Hi” and
the kid in the chair tries to guess who it is. They can use funny voices and as they get older,
have them SING something. Trade places until all have had a turn.
18. “Hands Like This”. Play a rhythmic pattern of your choice on the conga drum. Children move
freely through the space. When you say and play “hands like this” (eighth, eighth, eighth). They
have to clap and freeze. Continue playing and let them move through the space. If you stop
playing, without playing/saying anything, they have to freeze, too. Add many other things like:
“one, two, three” (eighth, eighth, eighth) and they have to freeze and say “four” (if they clap,
they are out). Also have added “five, six, seven” kids freeze and say “eight”. “Feet like this”
stomp and freeze, “John Travolta” freeze and pose like Saturday Night Fever. “Nod Your Head”
nod head down and freeze. You can also tell them how to move during the free movement as
you are playing. I adapted this game from one Cathy Ameling taught us at Orff Level I a few
years back.
 19. COLORS (3rd through 5th grade) Place about 8 colored construction papers are placed on the
ground sporadically. List the colors placed on the floor on the board. One student will be the
eliminator and face away from the rest of the class. He/she will play a xylophone C scale
( CDEFGABC)* while the rest of the students are moving to a color. (put a toe on the paper I say)
Students SHOULD be to the new color before the scale ends.. The eliminator will call out a color
and anyone standing on the mentioned color is OUT. (sit down away from game )
The last student standing will be the next eliminator.
Notes: when there are only a couple of students left, teacher should take away some of the
colors so the probability is low.
*Use different scales as they get older, pentatonic, minors, dorian, etc. You can also put down
laminated pictures of instruments, notes on the scale, tempo and dynamic words, etc., to increase the
difficulty as they get older.

20. The Maze Game. After I construct a maze on my classroom floor from music lummi sticks (or
yarn and tape), the object is for one student to go through the maze blindfolded. Here is the fun
part. Movement directions for the student are given through various instrumental tone colors
such as sticks for right; triangle for left; ratchet for turn until the sound stops; hand drum for
forward; or cabasa for backwards. If the blindfolded student’s foot touches any part of the
lummi sticks in place for the maze, they are out. I use a gong sound for out. The student must
remember what sound for what move and one sound is made for every step the student is
ordered to take. Small steps are piano (soft)sounds and big steps are forte sounds. One student
is appointed per instrument. A field judge is also appointed to be the one to determine
directions or to make a judgment on whether the blindfolded student’s foot touched the line or
not. If the candidate makes it through, both he/she and the judge get a prize. Grades 3-4-5 beg
to play this game again and again.
21.
Watchdog:
one student is the "watchdog". they sit with their eyes closed with tambourine or sleigh bells
behind them. Another student is chosen to walk up and take the instrument without being
heard. The watchdog barks if they hear the instrument and another student is chosen to try. If a
student is successful and brings the instrument back to a designated spot, they are the new
watchdog.