This is a post by Katrina Proctor, Former Middle School Music Teacher & Content Manager at Midnight Music.
Introduction
Back-to-school season is in full swing, so it’s time to start thinking about fun, engaging activities to get your secondary music classroom buzzing! As middle and high school teachers, we know how important it is to break that summer ice in fun and meaningful ways. We also know how choosy our students are when it comes to doing things that feel too silly or “elementary,” so planning those perfect back-to-school icebreakers is a pretty tall order!
Here to the rescue are six MORE icebreakers (check out last year’s edition if you’d like even more ideas) to help your secondary music students get to know each other better, learn names, dust off their music brains, and start off the new year by building community! They all have been time-tested in my middle school classroom, and I hope your students love them as much as mine!
#1: The Clapping Game
I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the classic music classroom icebreaker game, Pass the Beat, but if you’re looking for something more challenging to do with your older or more advanced students, you’ll love the Clapping Game.
It works like this:
- Students start off in a circle and will take turns following the beat around the room. However, the type of rhythm a student claps will dictate where it goes.
- A ‘Ta’ will send the beat forward a person.
- A ‘Ti-Ti’ will send the beat in reverse.
- A ‘Tika-Ti’ will make the beat skip over person in the same direction.
Students are out when students aren’t accurate, clap when they’re not supposed to, or don’t clap when they should. The game continues until one student is left.
Watch the video below for the full tutorial:
#2: Name Juggling Game
This is an awesome game to learn names, build concentration, and have some laughs.
To play, you’ll need three different colored, soft balls (see if you can borrow a few foam dodgeballs from your PE teacher) as well as a couple funny, random objects from around your classroom:
- Students will circle up, and everyone will raise their hands, signifying that they haven’t caught the ball yet.
- The teacher will throw the ball to someone with their hand up by saying their name.
- That person will throw it to another person by announcing their name and tossing the ball across the circle.
- When someone receives the ball, they will keep their hand down until the ball has crossed all over the circle to everyone who has their hand up.
Next, the pattern will repeat in the same order as before (whoever you threw it to, you will throw it to again). But, this time, you will add a second ball into the game (wait a few seconds before starting the second ball).
To make it harder, here are some ideas:
- Add a third ball, but that ball moves in reverse (you now throw that ball to whoever threw the ball to you).
- Add a silly random item into the mix that gets passed around the outside of the circle as the balls are being thrown.
Here’s the full tutorial:
#3: Body Percussion Warm-Up
This is a great music classroom icebreaker in that it’s not a traditional “Let Me Learn Your Name” game, but a simple let’s make something musical (rhythmic) together.
To play, you’ll teach a simple 4-bar body percussion example over the span of several repetitions.
Once the pattern is learned, alternate between performing the pattern and walking a steady beat.
Next, you’ll swap walking and rhythms across half of the class.
This is a wonderful activity to build improvisation skills from.
Here’s the tutorial:
#4: Blobs and Lines
For blobs and lines, you’ll need to create a simple presentation with different questions that can be grouped by the answer (ex. find other people who play your instrument) or lines (create a line in order of your birthday, January 1st to December 31st).
I also take this game one step further and have students either create open blobs (more open ended, ex. find a blob who likes the same kind of music as you) or closed blobs (less open-ended, ex. form a blob with people who have the same eye color as you).
I love this game because it’s heavier on the “let’s learn cool facts about each other” and lighter on the awkward presentation-type typical icebreaker.
You can grab the editable Canva download to my version of Blobs and Lines HERE. If you don’t already, make sure you have a free Canva educator account (click here to register).
I love making presentations in Canva, because there are hundreds of pre-created templates for teachers, making it so easy to whip out a presentation in minutes. Make sure to check out Katie’s Creating Beautiful Teaching Resources with Canva Course inside the MMC!
#5: Music Classroom Icebreaker Cootie Catcher
When it’s the beginning of the year, sometimes you just need your students to spend time talking to one another. A great way to do that is with cootie catchers! I’m a big fan of cootie catchers because even though they’re a little “kiddy,” I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t love them!
There are two ways to do cootie catchers in your music classroom, digitally or physically.
Digital Cootie Catchers
If you haven’t yet discovered the magic that is within SlidesMania, you are in for a TREAT. SlidesMania is a predominantly-free library of Google Slides templates that you can use in your classroom or for personal presentations.
Paula, who runs SlidesMania, has a free, digital Google Slides Cootie Catcher template (which you can grab directly here). If you’d like to see how it’s used, just watch the video below:
After your students download their own version of the cootie catcher, they can fill in their own icebreaker questions (here are some prompts from Midnight Music that students can form into questions) and play with other students in the classroom.
Printable Music Classroom Icebreaker Cootie Catchers
If digital cootie catchers aren’t for you, I have a Music Classroom Icebreaker Cootie Catcher activity that you can grab in my TpT Store here, which includes a printable template, instructions to use, a folding guide, and 30+ music and non-music icebreaker questions that students can choose from.
It also includes a handy ‘Something You Should Know About Me’ activity which is a perfect way for students to let you know any “shy” things such as their preferred pronouns, a seating preference, a health issue, or something they’re worried about this year. It also doubles as a way to learn something random & fun about the rest of your students who don’t need to share anything personal with you!
#6: Classroom Covenants
If you’re teaching middle and high school, you know how important it is to allow students to have a say in how the classroom is run. It’s hard to create and enforce rules if students don’t have buy-in, but allowing them to lend a hand in their creation helps establish healthy boundaries while also helping them establish a community they’re proud to be a part of.
For younger middle school students, they may be unfamiliar with how much personal responsibility is required in an ensemble or how routines in music class are different than in their core classes (ex. they can’t just ask questions in the middle of rehearsal, they have to be practicing their music outside of class, they may need to come in for extra help, etc.)
I always did this once sections were created in my ensemble, and my section leaders would run the activity.
Here’s how it worked:
- Create a digital poster in Canva (here’s a link to my example template) or give them a big poster-sized paper to write on (here’s an example). If you choose the digital route, it’ll be important to print these posters out when you’re finished.
- Talk about the different areas students may want to focus on: attendance, preparedness, participation, respect/behavior, routines etc.
- Brainstorm some ideas as a group.
- The teacher will lead the entire activity for younger middle school students, and students will talk through what they would like to commit to doing to make the year more successful.
- For example, “7th Grade Orchestra is committing to always being respectful in how we talk to one another or apologizing if we make a mistake because we want to make our classroom welcoming”,
- “6th Grade Band is committing to taking our instrument home and practicing for 20 minutes every night because we want to perform our best.”
- “6th Grade Music is committing to bringing our iPads every day because we’ll have more fun if everyone can participate.”
- For older middle school and high school students, have your section leader(s) talk through some things that will make the classroom run more smoothly.
- Example: Altos are establishing a buddy system to share important information & reminders about performances, check in if someone is missing, and schedule out-of-school practices. Everyone is responsible for texting/calling their buddy if they’re absent and catching up on what they missed.
- The trumpet section is committing to always cleaning up the room at the end of class because we like to be in a clean space.
Have everyone sign the paper, or choose their own personal font, and “sign” their Canva poster. Print off and hang up posters in the room (if you need to save on wall space, take a picture of the poster or print off the Canva document and give each student in the class/section a copy to keep at the front of their music folder/binder.
Final Thoughts
Icebreakers are a fun way to help students get to know each other and establish classroom norms and expectations. This list of six icebreakers provides a variety of activities that can be used in the music classroom from movement games to artistic activities, to competitions and music activities. These activities will help your students feel comfortable in the classroom and allow you to get to know them better as individuals. Which activity will you try first?
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About the Writer
Katrina Proctor is the Content Manager at Midnight Music and is also a music teacher from Colorado, USA. She has taught middle school music for nearly 10 years in northern Colorado where her passion is low-income students in Title 1 schools. She has taught 5th-8th grade chorus, advanced-level chorus, class piano, and general music. She has her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education & Master’s Degree in Music Education-Choral Conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder. You can connect with Katrina on Facebook or via her website, She The Teacher.
Looking for More Resources for Music Teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Community – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus oneasyways to incorporate technology intowhat you are already doing in your music curriculumthrough a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside theMidnight Music Community.
3 Comments
I’ll be using the ball, covenant and blob/line games.
Thank you!
You’re welcome – hope they go well!
[…] for even more ideas? Check out the icebreakers I just compiled for Midnight Music blog (I’m also the content manager over there!) — between these two blogs, you’ll be […]