Well it’s here! Back to school season means the teacher side of social media is filled with educators asking “What should I do with my kids the first day of school?” Today I’m sharing some of my favorite back to school music activities for those first weeks of school. [BTW, if you haven’t set up your classroom yet, click here to read some tips!]
Introduction Songs (Name Games)
Bumpity Bumpity Yellow Bus is a classic for Kindergarten and First Graders. In my student teaching, my cooperating teacher had a toy school bus that she actually rolled to each student for their turn. I always just rolled a ball from the dollar store. 😉
Rickety Rackety is my first name game for second and third grade. For this one, I alternate patting my lap and clapping my hands on the beat (payclap-pat-clap). About halfway through the game, I’ll add a challenge option for anyone who wants to try. The beat keeping pattern then changes to pat-clap-snap-clap. Completely optional, but a lot of the kids like the additional challenge.
Jump In, Jump Out is fun for upper elementary students. Tip for this one: project the lyrics on the board, so that they student whose turn it is doesn’t have as much to remember. Bonus tip: Tell your students ahead of time that “turtles” is not an option for the line, “and I like _____” (IYKYK). If you’re a member of the Cookie Club, click here to access lyrics slides for all three name games.
Back to School Composing
Composing can be a fun and engaging way to ease back into the swing of things. Back to school music activities don’t all need to be about ice breakers and name games if that’s not your style. This resource includes printable options, like in the photo below, as well as a digital option for Google Slides. Students can compose 4-beat or 8-beat rhythm patterns with a variety of rhythm icons. Choose whether to keep it simple with just quarter notes and eighth notes, or use everything up to eighth-sixteenth groupings. Introverted students will love a break from all of the get-to-know-you games, and all of your students will be making their own music on the first day.
Your Name is a Song
This gorgeous book by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow is perfect for the beginning of the school year. The book features a variety of names, and emphasizes the importance of respecting a person’t name. The author, Thompkins-Bigelow, has a short video on YouTube where she demonstrates how to say the names from the book. You may want to practice some of the names ahead of time if they are unfamiliar to you. Read the story, and discuss how our names are an important part of our identity. Students can practice each other’s names, and they can create a melody for how to say their own name. Have kids volunteer to share their name’s song, and the class can sing it back. If you’d prefer, you could use drums, and the students could create a rhythm for their name that the class could echo play.
Bonus: More Favorites
Below I’m linking other back to school music activities I’ve used and loved.
First Day of Music Class Worksheets
Back to School Vocal Explorations Freebie
Back to School Music and Movement
Happy Teaching!
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