Music games for kindergarten: nobody is out.

Ten no-prep music games for kindergarten

No printing and almost nothing to fetch, a cleared patch of floor, so they work indoors on a rainy day as well as in music class. Each takes about five minutes and practices one thing a kindergarten music class works on: the steady beat, fast and slow, loud and quiet, high and low, listening and stopping. Teach the stop first: freeze dance, red light, green light, musical chairs and follow the leader all run on it.

1. Freeze dance

Freeze dance (in Britain: musical statues): music on, everyone dances; music off, everyone freezes. Whoever wobbles keeps playing and stops the music next round. Change the music each time (a march, a waltz, something fast) and ask them to dance the way it sounds. Teaches listening for the stop, and self-control. Musical letters is the same game for the alphabet: big letters or shapes on the floor, and when the music stops everyone stands on the nearest one and says a word that starts with it.

2. Copy cat (rhythm echo)

You clap four beats, they clap them back. Start with words, because a pattern with words is easier to keep: ap-ple, ap-ple, pear; piz-za, piz-za, ice cream. Then clap without saying them, then pat the knees, then stamp. Two-beat patterns for the first weeks, four beats once they can.

3. Red light, green light, with a drum

A drum, a pot or your hands: while you play, they walk to your beat; when you stop, they stop. Play slowly and they creep, fast and they tiptoe quickly, loud and they stomp, quiet and they sneak. Nobody runs, nobody is sent back to the start.

4. Johnny Works with One Hammer

A traditional action song that counts up: one hammer is one fist tapping the knee on the beat, two hammers both fists, then a foot, both feet, and the fifth hammer a nodding head. The last verse is then he goes to sleep. Five-year-olds keep a steady beat with their whole body without noticing they are practicing it.

5. High and low with scarves

Sing or play a high note, the scarf floats up over the head; a low note, it sinks to the floor; a melody that climbs, the scarf climbs with it. No scarves: hands, or tall like a giraffe and small like a mouse. This is the first step to hearing which way a tune moves.

6. Charlie Over the Ocean

The children sit in a circle, the leader walks around the outside and sings each line, the circle echoes it: Charlie over the ocean · Charlie over the sea · Charlie caught a blackbird · can't catch me. On me the leader taps a back. In the playground version the two race around the circle; in a classroom of twenty they walk, back to the gap. The tapped child leads next, so every round has a new leader.

7. Guess the sound

Eyes closed or a cloth over a box: you crumple paper, shake a jar of rice, pull a zipper, knock on wood. What was it? Then two sounds: which came first? Quiet listening that a whole class can do at once.

8. Musical chairs where everyone stays

Take a chair away each round, but nobody leaves the game: two can share a chair. Stop while there are still a few chairs; twenty five-year-olds on one chair is a pile, not a game.

9. Follow the leader

Music on, one child moves, everyone copies: pats the head, waves, marches on the spot. When the music stops, the next child leads. Shy children can lead with one small movement; a nod is enough.

10. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, with a silent part

Sing it once through, then again faster. Then leave out head: touch it, don't sing it. Next round leave out shoulders too. By the end the tune runs in their heads with only the actions showing, which is what music teachers call inner hearing.

Which game for which age

In the US, kindergarten is the year children turn six, so a kindergarten class plays at the five-to-six level below; pre-K is four to five, preschool three to five. In much of Europe and Asia, kindergarten is the whole stretch from three to six, and in England the kindergarten year is called Reception (four to five). Most musical activities for 3 to 5 year olds sit in the two middle bands. The ages are rough: a class can play like a year younger on a Monday morning.

1. Ages 2 to 3 · joining in is everything

   Loud and quiet: everyone drums on their knees; you say “really loud”, then “really quiet, like a mouse”. Nobody has to get anything right.

   Animal voices: the cow moos low, the little bird peeps high. You go first, the children copy. That's high and low already, without the phone.

   A song everyone knows: the phone plays it, you sing along, the children move to it. At this age they watch more than they sing; the singing comes later on its own.

   ▶ Play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

2. Ages 3 to 4 · copying

   Echo singing with you: you sing “cuck-oo” on two notes, the group sings it back. Then “hel-lo”, then a name. Always all together, never one child alone. Afterwards Echo singing sings first: the owl or the frog, and the group answers.

   Mouse and giraffe: you sing a high note, everyone stretches; a low one, everyone curls up. From five, Higher or lower? above takes over.

   Freeze dance (game 1), with slow music so the stop comes as no shock.

   ▶ Play Mary Had a Little Lamb

3. Ages 4 to 5 · listening closely (pre-K)

   What note am I singing? At circle time every child who wants to sings one note into the phone and hears its name: “Woof. I heard A.” Whoever doesn't want to taps the button.

   The water glass xylophone as a project for a small group at the table: fill the bottles, blow across them or tap glasses with a spoon, listen, top up. If blowing doesn't sound yet, tapping does.

   Mystery song: hide the screen and tap one of the Play buttons on this page. Who knows the song? Then hum one yourself and let them guess.

   ▶ Play Lightly Row

4. Ages 5 to 6 · taking the lead (kindergarten)

   Higher or lower? and Same or different? as a class game: everyone shows, one child taps what most of them show. Every child gets a turn at tapping.

   Clap it back: Mika claps, everyone claps back. Then one child makes up a pattern and the others clap it.

   Pass the sound: standing in a circle, a “whoosh” goes from hand to hand on the beat. Once that runs, a “boing” sends it back the other way. Older classes add more sounds; at five, two are plenty.

   Are You Sleeping in two parts: the class sings it, and you come in as the second voice when they reach “Brother John”. Holding a part in two groups of children usually comes in second grade.

   A tune of their own: a child hums two bars into Brumm Kids, and the class hears it straight away as a track.

Circle time: ten minutes of music, and name games

The same four steps every morning. Small children like knowing what comes next, and the sung hello is already the first name game: every child hears their own name sung.

1. 1 · A sung hello

   You sing the call on two or three notes, each child answers on the same notes. Whoever doesn't want to sing waves.

   Who is here to-day?Li-na is here.

   ▶ Play the call

2. 2 · A note for everyone

   Two or three children a day sing a note in What note am I singing?. Tomorrow it's the next ones' turn.

   What note are you today? Sing a short one, Mika is listening.
3. 3 · An echo

   One round of Echo singing: Mika sings first, the whole group sings back.

4. 4 · A song together

   The phone plays it, everyone sings along. The second time you sing without the phone.

   First we listen, then we sing along.

Name games for kindergarten music

• Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar: a chant over a steady pat-clap. Every child's name comes once, and the answer Who, me? Couldn't be. Then who? is a call and response the whole class learns in one go.
• Roll and sing: the circle sits with legs apart, a soft ball rolls across, and everyone sings the name of whoever has it on the two notes of the answer (sol and mi): Li-na has the ball. She rolls it on to someone who hasn't had it yet.
• Clap the name: Ben is one clap, Li-na two, Ma-ri-a three. The class claps each name back, then guesses a name from its claps alone. That is rhythm before anyone calls it rhythm.
• A move for my name: the circle pats a steady beat; you call a name, that child steps into the middle for four beats with any movement and steps back, and everyone copies it for four beats. A nod counts.

Relaxing music games: calming the group down

When the group needs to settle down, slow everything at once: the tempo, the volume, the bodies. Sit everyone down first.

1. The quiet minuteClose your eyes. Who can hear three sounds?

   Then three children say what they heard: the heating, a car, someone's breathing. With two-year-olds, one sound is plenty.

2. Humming quieter and quieter

   Everyone hums one note together, quieter with every wave of your hand, until only the lips tickle.

3. Listening instead of romping

   Same or different? or Higher or lower? sitting down, answering only with hands, whispering instead of calling out.

4. Are You Sleeping, very slowly

   The phone plays it slowly and softly, you sing along, each time through quieter. At the end Brother John really is asleep.

   ▶ Play Are You Sleeping

5. A goodbye song with a stuffed animal

   Goodnight, Sleep Tight is a three-note song sung swaying from side to side. A stuffed animal goes around the circle, and each child rocks it once before passing it on. The same song at the end of every lesson tells the children it is over, without a word from you.

Nobody is out: how it works

In none of these games is a child ever out, and none counts points against other children. A five-year-old who drops out first spends the rest of the game watching, which is the one thing a music game shouldn't teach. Where the classic version takes someone out, there's a role instead.

1. Freeze dance and musical chairs

   Whoever moves stays in and stops the music next time. In musical chairs the children share chairs instead of leaving.

2. Children who don't want to sing alone

   They sing with everyone, or as a pair with you, or tap the button that plays the song. Nobody has to sing solo. A child who only watches for weeks is often the one who sings the whole song at home.

3. Children who find it too loud

   They get to set the volume or stop the music. The cards marked “quiet” need no noise at all.

4. Children who don't like being touched

   No game here needs holding hands. In the circle, standing side by side is enough; in Charlie Over the Ocean a wave replaces the tap.

A 30-minute kindergarten music class

A kindergarten music lesson in a US school is often 30 to 45 minutes. Five-year-olds manage about five minutes per activity, so plan six short ones and switch between sitting and moving each time.

Repeat the same plan for two or three weeks and swap one game at a time. Kindergartners enjoy a game more the second time, when they know what's coming.

The first weeks of kindergarten music

On the first day the hardest part is getting twenty five-year-olds to sit on the rug and stay there. Don't wait for it: start singing while they walk in and let the song do the seating.

• Follow Me is a song for day one: you sing, pat your head, stamp your feet, and they copy. On the spot; nobody walks around yet.
• Mark the circle with tape or floor spots, one per child, so nobody has to fight for a place.
• Open every lesson with the same hello and close with the same goodbye.
• Teach the stop signal on the first day: when the drum stops, everyone freezes. Freeze dance, red light, green light and musical chairs all use it.

Music and movement activities for kindergarten

Recorded music does the work here: you only press play and watch. Pieces with a clear change are best.

• Getting faster and louder: Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King starts quiet and slow and ends fast and loud. Tiptoe at the start, stomp at the end. One piece, and the children have felt tempo and volume change.
• Dance like an animal: Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals (1886): the elephant is a double bass, low and heavy; the birds are a flute, high and quick. Ask which animal it is before you say the name.
• Musical moods: play a short sad piece and a happy one. How does this one feel? Then move the way it feels.
• Dancing with props: scarves, ribbons or pool noodles on a table. Music on, pick one and dance; music off, put it back and take another.
• Draw what you hear: crayons and paper while the music plays. Long smooth lines for a slow piece, dots for a bouncy one. Then each child says what they drew.

Steady beat songs and rhythm games

The steady beat is the first thing kindergarten music works on: feeling the pulse that runs under a song and keeping it. Before clapping rhythms, children need to pat, walk or sway the beat.

• Chop Chop Chippity Chop: a spoken rhyme about making soup; a karate chop on the palm on every beat. The children say what goes in the soup.
• Down to the Baker's Shop: they hop only on hop, hop, hop and stand still the rest of the time. Stillness is the hard part at five. Then the children choose how to get to the shop: march, swim, tiptoe.
• Pass the beanbag: sitting in a circle, the beanbag goes to the next child on each beat of a song. Slow songs first.
• Cup passing: the same with a plastic cup, set down in front of the neighbor on the beat. The full cup game, with claps and flips, suits first grade and up.
• Rhythm sticks: two sticks each (or two wooden spoons), tap the beat to a nursery rhyme, then the rhythm of the words.
• Classroom instruments: shakers, a hand drum and a triangle: each plays only when its picture is held up, then all together on the beat. Boomwhackers tapped on the floor on the beat work from five: boomwhacker colors.

Boom, snap, clap and other hand-clapping games with partners need two hands doing different things; they suit first and second grade better. Keep them for later. More: rhythm games for kids.

Circle games and singing games

• Sally Go Round the Sun: the circle walks around singing; on the last word everyone says ka-boom and sits down. Quiet booms are allowed.
• The Old Gray Cat: one child is the sleeping cat in the middle, the others are mice creeping around. Each verse changes the speed: sleeping slow, creeping quiet, scampering fast. On the scampering verse the cat follows the mice once around the circle, walking, and then picks the next cat.
• Bluebird, Bluebird: the circle holds up arms as windows, one child weaves in and out as the bluebird and chooses the next bluebird at the end.

Kindergarten songs with actions

Action songs are music games with the rules built in: the words say what to do. Each of these practices one musical thing as well.

• If You're Happy and You Know It: clap, stamp, say “hooray”. Then leave the word clap out and only clap, the same inner hearing as Head, Shoulders.
• The Wheels on the Bus: one movement per verse; the shh, shh, shh verse whispered, the horn's beep, beep, beep loud.
• Open, Shut Them: hands open and shut, then the whole song very slowly and then very fast.
• Five Little Speckled Frogs: five children are frogs on a log and jump into the pool one by one. Counting down, and the next five take the log.
• Hickory Dickory Dock: one arm swings as the clock's pendulum on the beat, the fingers run up the clock and down again.
• The Hokey Pokey: body parts, left and right, and a song they ask for again.
• BINGO: each verse claps one more letter instead of singing it, until the whole name is claps. The same inner hearing as Head, Shoulders.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider: fingers climb on the beat; sing it once high and small, once low and slow as the Great Big Spider.

High and low activities for kindergarten

High and low is harder than it sounds: many children say “high” for loud and “low” for quiet. Keep the two apart by playing a quiet high note and a loud low one.

• Body staircase: sing up five notes, hands go from knees to head step by step.
• Slide whistle: if there is one, it slides up and the children rise, slides down and they sink; it stops and they freeze where they are.
• Higher or lower? (from five) and What note am I singing? (from four) on the phone above.

What kindergarten music games teach

The US National Core Arts Standards (2014) ask kindergarten to explore the beat and the shape of a melody, and to notice contrasts such as high and low, loud and soft, same and different. The games above cover them like this:

Small voices: sing where children sing

Children's voices sit higher than adults' speaking voices. Kodály-trained music teachers pitch kindergarten songs between about the D above middle C and the A above it (D4 to A4). Start a song where you speak and it is too low for them: they growl or stop. The five tunes behind the Play buttons are in D, between D4 and B4; only the last ding, dang, dong of Are You Sleeping dips to the A below. Start the other songs on about the same D. Never ask for the loudest or the highest note; a singing voice is not a shouting voice.

Christmas and Halloween music games

Same games, new costume. In October: Five Little Pumpkins, five children sitting on the gate, rolling away one by one; Skin and Bones with the oo-oo-oo sung as a slide from high to low, and the last boo whispered; a skeleton freeze dance, The Old Gray Cat as a black cat, and guess the sound with creaks and rattles. Keep it spooky, not scary: a frightened four-year-old stops singing. In November: Pavo, Pavo, a Chilean folk song about a turkey, where the circle walks one way, the turkey struts the other, and the turkey picks the next turkey. In December: freeze dance as frozen snowmen, sleigh bells for red light, green light, and Jingle Bells with a jingle on every jingle.

Online and interactive music games for kindergarten

The six cards at the top are free and run in the phone's browser: no app, no account, nothing to install. One phone is enough for the whole class; the children answer with their bodies and one child taps. Online games where a child reads notes or drags rhythms on a screen suit first grade better, and in kindergarten five minutes of screen per lesson is plenty.

Music games at home

With one child, you are the group. Freeze dance, copy cat and guess the sound work in a kitchen. Let the child lead half the time: they clap, you copy, and you get it slightly wrong now and then. Or make them the choreographer: they invent the moves to a song, you follow.

Instruments you make in ten minutes

• Drum: a pot, a bucket or a cookie tin, played with hands or wooden spoons.
• Shaker: a small plastic bottle with a spoonful of dry rice or lentils and the lid taped shut. Rice, lentils and dried beans are small enough to choke on or push up a nose, so an adult tapes or glues the lid shut and checks it before each use; under three, only bottles an adult has sealed.
• Plate tambourine: two paper plates with a handful of dried beans between them, stapled all the way around, the staples covered with tape; check that no gap lets a bean out.
• Water bottles: five bottles with different amounts of water make a scale; the water glass xylophone says when each one is right.

Then form a band: one shakes, one drums, someone sings, and the show is for whoever is home.

Printable lesson plan (PDF) and what you need

What you need: a phone with an up-to-date browser (Safari or Chrome). No sheet music, no instrument, no account, no musical training. The five tunes behind the Play buttons are traditional and free to sing. To print this page as a lesson plan or keep it as a PDF, use the browser's Print and choose Save as PDF (on an iPhone: Share, Print, then the Share button at the top of the print options, then Save to Files). The Play buttons only work on the screen. For a class of six- to ten-year-olds there is a separate page: music games for primary and elementary school.

Only the games marked “Mic” use the microphone, and only once someone taps. What a child sings stays on the phone; nothing is uploaded (Brumm Kids privacy).

This page is new and hasn't been tried in a kindergarten class yet. If you use it, tell us what worked and what didn't: hello@brumm.ai.