This dance activity combines movement with listening skills. Move the desks and other furniture to the sides of the classroom. Instruct the students to form a circle in the middle of the space. Play some music and ask the children to dance to the tune. Pause the music and instruct the children to freeze in place. Wait a few seconds before restarting the music. Any child who moves or falls over while "frozen" is out. Restart the music and repeat this activity until there is only one student left standing.
This dance game can be used in the classroom or during the children's PE time. Assign three children in the group to be dinosaurs. Give the first dinosaur a red ball, the second dinosaur a green ball and tie a sash around the third dinosaur's waist. The remaining students will run and skip around the room while trying to avoid the dinosaurs. The child with the red ball is the "dance" dinosaur. The children skipping need to start dancing when the dance dinosaur comes towards them to avoid being tagged out. The child with the green ball is the "freeze" dinosaur. Children must freeze to escape being tagged out. Any child who is tagged must sit in place on the floor. The child with the sash is the "officer" dinosaur; he can tap a child sitting on the floor to release her back into the game.
Have children mimic the movements of animals. The children will form a circle in the middle of the classroom and the teacher will play a song in the background. The teacher will then hold up a picture or call out the name of an animal, such as a cat, dog, horse, bear or chicken. The children will create dances by moving like that animal. For the last dance, ask the children to dance like their favorite animals and see if you can guess what they have chosen.
Teach students to recognize rhythms through this dance activity. Bring a drum to class and explain to the students what rhythm means. Tap a steady beat on the drum and ask the children to dance to it. Alternately speed up and slow down the beat and have the children adapt their dance accordingly. Beat the drum loudly and then softly. Loud drum beats can encourage stomping and clapping, while students may respond to softer drum beats with smaller, shuffling steps.