The Power of Music and Dance for Creative Learning in ECE Classrooms

Each day, children are growing, getting stronger, and developing new skills. During the first five years of life, children learn to roll over, crawl, stand, walk, hop, and more! They love to discover all the ways that their bodies can move and interact with the world around them. Many children find moving along with music to be particularly enjoyable. Incorporating music and movement into the early childhood classroom helps children to learn important life skills, and invites children to use movement as a tool for exploration, communication and expression.  

Movement as a Tool for Learning

Beginning in early infancy, children use their bodies to discover the world around them. Because movement is such a natural part of early exploration, using movement in an early childhood classroom is a great way to support children’s learning and self-expression. April Kaiser, an educator at the Child Development and Family Center at Northern Illinois University, explains, “Most children are quite at home with movement. They begin to learn about the world by acting on objects and people, and they ‘think with their bodies’ well before they think with words. This is why body movement is not only fun for children but also a good opportunity for them to solve problems.” 

Movement and music offer opportunities for children to try out social skills that can help them build relationships and form friendships. Moving to music in a shared space is a way for children to participate in a group activity with peers, even before they are ready to share or take turns. 

Music & Movement Play and Learning Ideas

Playing a variety of different songs and music styles is a great way to introduce new music, rhythms, and movements to the children in your care. You might put on some music and invite children to move like animals–  walking like an elephant, hopping like a rabbit, waddling like a penguin, or slithering like a snake!  There are several free movement and dance songs for young children available on YouTube. You might enjoy some of the options below. 

• Shake Your Sillies Out
• Penguin Dance
• Go Bananas!

Music and movement can also reinforce foundational skills like shape recognition and counting. Connie Bergstein Dow, the author and creator of the website, Moving is Learning shares these suggestions:

• During an exploration of shapes, children can use their bodies to form circles, squares, triangles, or other shapes; walk or march making floor patterns such as figure eights, straight lines, and zigzag lines, or jump in the air while they make a shape.
• Invite children to demonstrate all the ways they can use movement to make a letter of the alphabet. For example, you could ask, “How many ways can you make a big curve like the letter C using your body?”  
• When children are fidgety, try integrating movement into a learning game, like a counting game. For example, you might say, “‘Let’s count to five while we wiggle and fidget.” or “Let’s all jump three times… 1-2-3!”  Fidgeting can also become a vocabulary game: ‘What is another word for fidget? Squirm! Jiggle! Wiggle!’ 
  

Music & Movement to Support Daily Routines

• Morning Greeting. Start each day with a welcome song to help children transition to the ECE environment, such as:
  • Welcome Song: “Hello, everyone, how are you?”
  • You are Here Today! Welcome Song
  • Spanish Welcome Song: “Hola Hola”

• Clean-up time. Put on some clean-up music–– marching band music and other rhythmic tunes work well!  Ask children to clean up while music is playing and to freeze when the music stops. Repeat this activity during cleanup time and count how many times it takes to clean/stop before the children have finished cleaning up.
• Naptime. Playing soft, relaxing music is an effective way to signal that it’s time to slow down and transition to naptime.
• Washing Hands Songs.  These songs can help little ones remember that washing hands should be done frequently and thoroughly:
  •  Wash Your Hands to the Tune of Baby Shark
  •  Wash Your Hands in Spanish to the Tune of La Bamba: “Yo me lavo las manos”

Resources for Further Exploration

• If you’re interested in learning more about the connection between movement and learning, you might enjoy the book, Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head by Carla Hannaford. You can find a brief overview of the book in this Good2Know Network article from the archives. 
• Movement can also be integrated into art activities!  For ideas and examples, take a look at Good2Know’s article: Process Art Activities for that Build Motor Skills. 
• You’ll find a few more music & movement ideas in the article, Ten Rainy-day Indoor Activities for Preschoolers and Young Children