- different colored scarves or ribbons
- home-made instruments and/or rhythm instruments such as maracas and rhythm sticks
- variety of recorded instrumental music (quiet, soothing, slow, dramatic, dance music, circus music, etc.)
- fast
- loud
- music
- slow
- soft
- sound
- volume
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 4 Engage in play experiences that involve naming and sorting common words into various classifications using general and specific language.
Health Education 16 Recognize and describe or represent emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger, fear, sadness.
EEC Infant and Toddler Guidelines:
PW50. The older toddler engages in a variety of physical activities.
Explore Together (indoors): Scarf Dance
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Sounds vary in three ways: volume (loud or soft), pitch (high or low), and timbre (quality)
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Creative Expression, Vocabulary
Display the scarves for children to choose from. Tell children you are going to have them do a scarf dance today. Play a lively piece of music for children. Encourage children to use their new sound vocabulary to describe the music. Introduce words such as fast and slow to help children describe the tempo of the music.
As the music plays, ask children how the music makes them want to move. Begin to move your arms to the music as you are holding a scarf. Say, This fast music makes me feel excited. I want to move my arms quickly like this. Ask, How does the music make you want to move? Comment on the movements children make. Encourage them to describe their movements with the scarves.
Repeat with another style of music with a different beat or tempo. Record the music and children’s movement so you can play it back as you reflect with children. You may want to also have the video available in the Technology Center for children to view on their own.
Reflect and Share Together
Ask children questions about what they liked about the music, such as, What music did you like the most? Is that the one that made you want to move or dance? Have them explain their answer.
Then ask, Why do you think some music makes you want to move slow or fast? Do you think the volume, or how loud or soft it is, makes you want to move a certain way? Show parts of the video and discuss how the movement of the scarves changed when the music was fast, slow, loud, or soft.
Educator Tip: Some children may not have the right words to accurately describe how they are feeling. Be cautious of answering for children and labeling their emotions too soon. Teach a variety of emotion words so children can describe how the music makes them feel.
Adaptation: If children have difficulty putting their ideas into words, provide sentence frames for them to complete, such as, When the music was _______ I moved ________, and when the music was ________ I moved _______.