Top 5 First Day Of School Music Name Games
Summer is slowly drawing to an end and it’s time to start thinking about first day of school music activities. You may be starting to look at your first day of elementary music class lesson plans and wanting something new to do with your students. You want something that’s fun, helps you learn their names, and that will keep your students involved and engaged for the duration of the activity.
The first day of music class can be both exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time, especially if you have lots of names to review and learn. Using name games as icebreakers for music class can be a really great way to start building relationships from day one, and help to create and cultivate that safe space atmosphere we ultimately want our room to have.
I’ve compiled about 5 of my favorite go to first day of school music name games, and figured I’d share them in case you’re looking for something new and want to set yourself up for a great first day of elementary music!
Johnny Plays The Drum Beat
(Grades K-2)
This is a fun little first day of music class activity that I picked up from SingPlayCreate, and my kids absolutely love! (Check out the original blog post here)
Johnny plays the drum beat, drum beat, drum beat (Solfege: D-D-D-M-S-M-S-R-S-M)
Johnny plays the drum beat, all day long (Solfege: D-D-D-M-S-M-S-R-D)
For the game, have students in a circle, and place a drum in the center. Teach the lyrics by rote, or you can project them on the screen. For the younger grades, talk about turns, and how to a respectful listener when someone else is taking a turn.
Each student will get a turn to go play the drum while the class sings that student’s name for the round. Have them stop playing on the word “long” and return to their spot, patting their knees to the beat to continue. The first time we do the game, I guide a lot, and help the students in the middle so that they do not feel so scared. By Day 2, they are moving and grooving on their own!
2. Higgelty Piggelty
I am unsure as to where this song originated from, but I learned it in my elementary methods class at the University of Florida and absolutely loved it! This is one of my favorite first day of music class activities for kindergarten especially!
For the game, each student has a puppet. After learning the song, the students sing along, and the teacher chooses a student to go first. Ideally, they will sing “My name is ,” and the class will echo back “His/her name is _,” and the game will continue in a circle. The puppet is there to help the students that might be scared on the first day of school. It creates the illusion that the puppet is singing, and not them. Of course if they just speak their name, that is perfectly acceptable as well. Everything is more fun when a puppet is involved!
3. Jump In, Jump Out (Grades 3-5)
This is another great music class icebreaker that gets the students moving right away, which my older kids greatly enjoy! There are many variations of this song floating around, but the version I am most familiar comes from the Make Music Rock blog.
Class:
Jump in, jump out! Turn yourself around.
I said, jump in, jump out! Introduce yourself.
Soloist: (Class)
My name is__________ (yeah)
And I like __________ (yeah)
And I can __________ (yeah)
Class:
All right, all right, all right!
Circle game:
– Jump in, jump out = Everyone jumps in the circle and back out
– Turn yourself around = Turn in place one time
– Jump in, jump out = Everyone jumps in the circle and back out
– Introduce yourself = One student steps to the center of the circle to speak the solo part.
– Class answers each statement with, “Yeah” and copies the action of the soloist on “All right, all right, all right!”
– Repeat poem with the next person in the circle stepping forward as the soloist. Continue until everyone has had a turn. Students can add claps or teacher can add a drum to help them speak in rhythm.
4. Rickity Rackity (Grades K-2)
This is a fun first day of music class activity that I discovered via the amazing Aileen Miracle.
For this game, students keep the steady beat while saying the chant. Then each student takes a turn saying “My name is __,” and students echo it back. They can also clap their names to help practice rhythm as well!
5. Up The Ladder (Grades 2-5)
This game is always a fun first day of school in music name game to use with the older grade levels. For this game, you can either use the same movements from the video or add your own. This is a real crowd pleaser!
And with that, we have concluded with our Top 5 First Day Of School Music Name Games! I hope you enjoy all of these, and would love to know in the comments below if you end up implementing any of these fun first day of music class icebreakers in your classroom 🙂
