World Cup / Soccer Themed Elementary Music Lesson Activities

My students have been buzzing about the world cup the last few weeks and I'm thrilled they're so much more aware of it this time than my students have been in the past! With all the excitement around this major worldwide sporting event I knew I had to add in some soccer and world cup themed lesson activities before the end of the school year. Even if you're on summer break these would be perfect to start off the year in the fall, or use any time to grab your little soccer fans' attention!

Rhythm Play-Alongs

Of course my go-to easy option for tying in a certain theme is to use play-along videos, and there are some great ones for different rhythm elements out there! For example this one is super easy with just quarter notes and barred eighth notes, this one includes triplets, this one uses eighth-sixteenth combinations, this one has barred sixteenth notes, and this one includes eighth rests (but the first 2/3 of it only uses quarter notes/ rests and barred eighth notes if you want something easier).

Dance / Steady Beat Movement

I use the world cup theme songs from over the years for movement activities and dance games all the time because they are upbeat, school-appropriate, and the lyrics are always positive and energizing. I use them to practice steady beat by having students take turns coming up with a motion to do on the beat for the rest of the class to copy, or use the songs to play a game of freeze dance. There are lots of great ones but my favorites are Dai Dai from 2026, Waka Waka from 2010, and Dreamers from 2022. I've also used this dance tutorial video to get my older students dancing!

Instruments / Ensemble Playing

Another easy way to use the World Cup theme songs is as a backing track for instrument playing. Split the class up into small groups and give each group a different classroom instrument to play. For younger students point to or hold up pictures of the instruments to have them play the steady beat with the music, and for older students give each group an ostinato to play on your cue, layering them on top of each other (you could either do this by rote or have them read from notation). This is a great way to practice proper classroom instrument technique, ensemble listening/ playing, following a conductor, and if they're reading from notation, practice reading rhythms as well.

Vocabulary Review

All you need is a little soccer plushie and you can review any vocabulary you want! Write the vocabulary words on the board and have students stand at a distance and throw the plushie at the board. Whatever word or symbol they hit closest to they have to identify/ explain. Split the class into teams and have them take turns to earn points!

Music Around the World

The World Cup is a great jumping off point for exploring music from the countries they see represented in the tournament! I have units on several countries participating in the world cup this year that you could dive into, or just pull out a song or activity to add to your lessons: Korea, Japan, Colombia, Brazil, and New Zealand. I also have individual songs and lesson activities from many of the other participating countries- search by country on this page.

I hope this gives you some ideas to incorporate the World Cup into your elementary music lessons! Of course I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to tie into the soccer theme- I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments as well. And if you want to incorporate other sports, check out my previous posts on lessons using football, baseball, and ice skating themes!

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What To Do With Those Beanbags

If you are starting a new job in a new classroom and suddenly find yourself with a bin full of beanbags you don't know what to do with, or you have had them for a while and feel like you're not getting as much use out of them as you should, this post is for you! In this post you'll find tips for managing their use with students, plus plenty of ways to use them in lessons from Kindergarten through 6th grade!

1. Management tips

One of the most common issues that can turn a fun movement prop into a headache is the immediate tossing and playing around that happens when you're passing them out. Now you can't give directions for the activity because they're only paying attention to the beanbag in their hands, after you just told them to leave it on the floor! Here are a few ways I avoid that problem depending on the age of the students, situation, and honestly my mood at the time:

1) I give all of my instructions, including having students practice any movements we need to work on before we start the actual activity, before handing out the beanbags. This strategy is one I use pretty much every time- once the beanbags are in front of them their brains just aren't going to be as focused as they are when they're motivated to want to get one! I explain what we are doing and have them practice any specific moves in the air with an imaginary beanbags, then quickly hand them out and jump right into it before anything gets out of hand.

2) Tell students to treat the beanbags like instruments: if you play (touch) before I say, you'll make the instrument (beanbag) go away! I use this especially with my younger grades by having them put their hands in their laps while sitting on the floor and setting the beanbags down on the floor in front of them so they don't touch them at all until we're ready to begin.

3) Give them some time to explore. For middle grades sometimes I find the best strategy is to give them what they want: time to explore what the beanbag feels like and have some fun with it before I ask them to only use it in the specific way I want. Any time I do this I tell them they can "test them out" until I turn off the lights, then give them a minute before I turn off the lights and have them set the beanbags down. 

2. Lesson Ideas

Early Childhood/ Adaptive music: I discovered a new favorite use for my beanbags this year: using them as quieter, safer, sturdier alternatives to egg shakers! I had some students who were new to our building and were very impulsive with any objects they were given at the beginning of the year, so even a pretty sturdy plastic egg shaker was likely to get broken, but they really did respond well to the egg shaker songs I had so I wanted to be able to continue them without breaking any more instruments. My beanbags were a perfect substitute that gave them a chance to practice following directions and responding to the music by shaking with the steady beat etc, as well as add in other fun ways to use them like tossing them or tapping them on our knees, without worrying about anything breaking.

1st/ 2nd grade: With lower elementary grades, bean bags are a great way to mix up steady beat movement activities. Even though steady beat is mainly a focus in my Kindergarten curriculum, it's one of those things students still need a lot of regular practice with, especially in 1st and 2nd grade! But they don't want to just repeat the songs they did in Kindergarten. I use them most often by turning on a track with a clear beat and asking students to take turns suggesting a way to use the beanbags on the beat- usually tapping a specific body part like knees, tummy, head, or shoulder, but sometimes other moves like passing it back and forth between their hands etc.

3rd/4th grade: With my middle grades I use beanbags to practice showing duple and triple meter. By this age they can usually control it pretty well while tossing the beanbags so they can still catch them and keep them in their own space, so I will have students do a "left hand- right hand- toss" movement sequence with a triple meter song, or pass them back and forth between their two hands for a duple meter song to feel the difference between the two meters. The tossing adds a level of challenge that is just right for this age!

5th grade: I have 2 beanbag passing games that are always a huge hit with my 5th graders: Bhombela and Take Five. Bhombela is a song from southern Africa including Mozambique so I use it in my unit with 5th grade on Mozambique, and the jazz song Take Five is a great way to introduce uncommon time signatures. Check the linked videos for demonstrations of how to use the beanbags with each of these songs.

6th grade: I use one other beanbag passing game in 6th grade that is also a big hit and is perfect for introducing dotted quarter/ single eighth rhythms: Al Citron. This is another activity that is the perfect level of challenge for this age group to keep students engaged and motivated to repeat it over and over again, which is just what I want when I need students to get used to a new rhythm! 

If you've found it difficult to teach passing games, here is my post explaining the strategies I started using a few years ago that made all the difference in the world for getting students to be successful with passing games!

I hope this gives you some fresh ideas to help you use your beanbags (or maybe inspire you to get some for your classroom)! They are an excellent kid-friendly, cost-effective tool for teaching steady beat, form, meter, and rhythm. And if you have more beanbag activities you love to use in music lessons, please let me know in the comments!

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Basic Parachute Moves to Use with Any Song

Using a parachute in elementary music lessons is one of those things that, once you get the hang of it, it's hard to stop yourself from using it all the time! It was intimidating for me at first but honestly now that my students and I have figured out how to do a few basic moves, I just use the same moves in different combinations with different listening pieces to reinforce form, meter, and other musical elements in an engaging way!

Obviously there are plenty of other ways to use the parachute, but here are the most common moves I use for movement activities in the music classroom (some typical parachute moves are best left for the PE teacher with a full gym), and the musical elements and concepts I use them to teach.

1. Walk in a circle: students all face the same direction around the circle, hold the parachute with one hand, and walk on the steady beat. I usually will match the phrasing or time signature by having students switch directions for each phrase/ measure.

2. Up and down: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and slowly move the parachute up and down. This is a great one to either reinforce longer phrasing or a slower tempo- they should move it slowly enough to create a "balloon" with the parachute.

3. Shake: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and use quick and small movements to shake the parachute. I usually use this when the song is about something with water, or something shaking/ moving, or there is a section with a lot of fast notes. This move is even more fun if you toss in a couple ping-pong balls or very light stuffed animals to watch them bounce around the parachute as it moves!

4. Sway: students all face the middle, hold the parachute with both hands, and sway back and forth (clockwise/ counterclockwise). This is harder than it looks because to get the parachute moving correctly everyone has to move to the same direction, which looks opposite from the person you're facing! This is a great move for reinforcing a triple meter feel, or to move with a middle tempo beat.

Once you know how to do a few basic moves with the parachute, it's easy to put together a movement piece to match any listening piece you want to use in your lessons! Just pick one move for each of the sections to match the form of the song and you've got a great way to reinforce form, beat, meter, tempo, and even lyrical themes or rhythms depending on the song.

If you're worried about having enough room to move around with a parachute, or not sure if your students are behaviorally ready for that level of activity, try starting with these stationary parachute activities! I started with those first the first year I started using a parachute and it helped me, and my students, feel much more comfortable with using the parachute in the classroom before I had an entire class holding it and moving around!

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Cup Games for Upper Elementary Music

Who knew a simple plastic cup could be the source of so much learning and engagement for those tough-to-please upper elementary students?!? Over the years I've found a handful of cup games that have become unexpected favorites for my 4th-6th graders. If you're looking for something new to keep your upper elementary students musically engaged, these are surefire hits!

1. Escatumbararibe

The cup game that started it all for me was this Brazilian cup song I started teaching my 6th graders years ago as part of the bigger unit I teach them each year on the music of Brazil. It is just hard enough to hold their interest but attainable enough to avoid too much frustration. I start off teaching it without the passing element, and then eventually build up to passing the cups around the circle, but you could keep it an individual activity (which makes it slightly easier and does not require as much floor space) by just having students tap the cup in front of them instead of passing it. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I think this activity is so successful is that the passing part is slowed down enough that if one student is off for some reason there is enough time for everyone to recover without the whole circle falling apart, so if your students struggle with passing games generally, this one may be one they can handle (and I have more tips on teaching passing games successfully below). Read my post on my Brazilian unit for the song and demonstration of the game, including a slowed down tutorial.

2. Sleigh Ride

I created this super simplified cup routine to go with "Sleigh Ride" way back in 2014 and that video tutorial has been one of the most popular videos on my channel ever since! But I have a confession: while I labeled it as easy enough for Kindergarten- which it is, and I have used it with Kindergarten successfully multiple times- I actually use it most often with 5th grade. That's because it's easy enough for students to pick up in 1-2 run-throughs without me having to break down each movement, so it's perfect for introducing Rondo form, which is part of my 5th grade general music curriculum! Because I want it to be something students can pick up right away to experience the repeating and contrasting sections I don't do it as a passing game, but it could easily be adapted to a passing game by having students "tap-tap-pass" in the A section instead of tapping 3 times and switching hands as demonstrated in the video above, if you wanted to add a level of challenge or make the activity more cooperative.

3. Addams Family

This one has made the rounds on the internet since Marti Chandler came up with it decades ago but it's worth sharing. I don't use it as consistently as I do the first two, which have a permanent spot in my curriculum, but I do pull it out with my 4th-6th graders when I need something fun and different, and it's a great way to get students to experience triplets, identify A and B sections, or even review repeat signs. This video has an excellent visual that also shows the same mnemonic devices I use to teach the different patterns. I have always done this as a passing game because it is highly repetitive and simple enough for students to learn, but this could easily be adapted to take out the passing element by having students flip the cup over, or drag it in small circles in front of them on the floor, etc on the beat in the B section.

As I've mentioned for each of these cup games, they can all be done as individual cup song routines or as passing games. If you, like me, have found passing games seemed to suddenly become a lot more difficult to teach in the last 10 years, I am happy to report that I have, in the last few years, discovered a teaching strategy that has made it possible for me to do passing games successfully again! You can read all the details about how I teach them now in this post.

I know upper elementary students can be difficult to keep engaged in musically meaningful learning sometimes, so I hope this gives you some new ideas to try with your students! If you want to see how these fit into a sequenced curriculum that keeps students engaged year-round, be sure to check out my general music curriculum. What are other songs you have used with cups for upper elementary? I'd love to hear your successful lesson ideas in the comments as well!

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