Move and Freeze is a must in my Kindergarten & First Grade classes.  Although we have very active music classes, my students need a little time set aside each music class for a movement break.  At the start of the year, Move and Freeze is fun!  Kids love having autonomy over their movement and dancing around the room.

With all things, there comes a moment when Move & Freeze starts to lose it’s magic.  The kids still need it, but it becomes predictable.  How do you give new life to a tried and true activity?

Get out of your music rut!

Find some new tunes for Move and Freeze!  I love to use Move & Freeze as an opportunity to expose my students to new genres of music.  My students love moving to the likes of the Gipsy Kings, Esquivel, and Harry Connick Jr.  There are so many great pieces to choose from!  Don’t be afraid to look pieces they love too!  One year, I used the song from the Lego Movie.  My students lost their minds because they assumed I wouldn’t use something like that in music class!

Make it a game!

Every time your students freeze, give them a focus.  “Make a statue in high space!”  “Make a statue in shared space!”  Let the movement be anything they like, but when they freeze, have them focus on on making shapes, exploring space, sharing space with others, etc.  Again, it will change the nature of the movement of every student in the room.

Reverse it!

It sounds crazy, but it’s really is fun to do with kids!  Reverse your Move and Freeze.  When the music plays, the students must stand perfectly still, but when the music stops, students may move.  It’s fun to watch how students react and move to the music they just heard.  Once we do this in class, students ask for it again and again!

Use images!

We use Laban efforts (flow, weight, space, and time) in our classroom instruction daily.  When it comes to Move and Freeze though, those concepts seem to go out the window.  I started using images with my students during Move and Freeze to help direct their movements to include flow, weight, space and time.  You can see an example below.

Do you ever have that moment when your students ask for Move and Freeze, but they’re just too old for it?  My second and third grade students ask all the time why we don’t do Move and Freeze anymore.  I thought it was funny at first, because they are moving in class with Folk Dances.  The reality is, they need those movement breaks as much as my younger students!  I started playing with the idea of giving my students something to do during the Move and Freeze.  What worked the best was giving students rhythm flashcards to read as they moved to music.  Each student is given one flashcard and they have to read it aloud, then trade it with another student.  I play the music for 60-90 seconds, so students can trade multiple times. When the music stops, I read a rhythm aloud.  If a student is holding that card, they are the winner of the Move & Freeze.  The first time I did this with students, it was as if they were trading Pokemon cards!  I couldn’t get over the level of engagement from my students!  And when it was time to get back to work, they were ready!  It was a win-win all the way around!

What are some of your tried and true activities for giving your students a movement break in music?  You might enjoy checking out Dance & Freeze or Rhythm Move & Freeze in my TpT store!