7 Musical Games For Kids

Playing games with music helps children to come out of their shells and to have fun in a different way than playing other games. Music is therapeutic and fun and is a great way to shake things up in your homeschool routine, even for the teacher! 

Here are a few suggestions of some of the musical games for kids that you can try.

1. Musical Chairs

This is the most obvious choice for musical games out there. Most people know how to play this one, but here’s a little explanation just in case.

1. Count how many children you have.
2. Get chairs equal to the amount of children, minus one.
3. Arrange the chairs in a double line, back to back.
4. Start the music. Children will be walking around the chairs in a circle, clockwise, while the music is playing. 
5. Stop the music randomly. This is when everyone scrambles to find a seat. The person left standing is out. 
6. Start again, each time removing another chair.
7. The winner is the last person sitting in a chair.

2. Freeze Dance

This one is great for littles to get the sillies out. Play some fun, upbeat music and get them dancing. Randomly stop the music and tell them to freeze. Have them look around to see what crazy positions they froze in. Keep going to see how many funny poses you can see!

3. Little Composers 

For this game, your children are going to make their own composition! You don’t need instruments for this. 

1. Grab some paper and crayons or pencils.
2. Have you children sit down and think of some sounds they can make. Some examples are clapping, whistling, tapping, and snapping. (Let them be creative and look around to see what else they can use to make sounds.)
3. Then have them create some symbols for each sound. These can be fairly simple: a dot, a dash, or shapes or even letters. If they are really creative, they can create little drawings, but remember it should be easy and quick to do for the next step.
4. Next, use your symbols to write a song. For example, if a clap was C, whistle was W, and tap was T, then your composition could look like:

C-C-C W-W C-C-C T-T-T

Which would translate into clap, clap, clap, whistle, whistle, clap, clap, clap, tap, tap, tap.

Once they are satisfied with their composition, it’s time to practice! Then play your creation for everyone once you’ve mastered it!

4. Pass the Parcel

This one has a prize at the end, and it’s a popular one for birthday parties and icebreakers. When you think of musical games for kids, this one is likely one you think of!

1. Buy a small toy or a few depending on how often you will play this game from your local dollar store. 
2. Wrap a toy in multiple layers of gift paper, enough to match the number of children at least, but you could add a few extra layers if you want it to go a bit longer. Optional: you can start with the toy in a box if you want a neat shape for wrapping.
3. Have your players sit in a circle, close enough so that it’s easy to pass the parcel.
4. Play some music! While the music is playing, players must pass the parcel to the player beside them going in the same direction.
5. Stop the music. The person holding the parcel when the music stops gets to unwrap one layer of the gift paper. 
6. Start the music again and repeat step 5 until the player holding the parcel unwraps the last layer of gift wrap. They won the prize!

5. Name That Tune 

This one is for all the singers out there!

1. Pick a few songs that your kids will know very well. Depending on how many children are playing, use that number to determine a good amount that everyone gets a chance to play. 
2. From the list you’ve chosen, write down a line from each song on a strip of paper.
3. Put the strips of paper in a basket, bowl, or bag and shake or mix it up.
4. Have each player pull a strip of paper, and they will have to sing the line of the song they’ve chosen and have the other players guess what song it is.
5. Keep going until everyone has had a chance to play.

6. Humdinger 

This one is similar to “Name That Tune,” but better for those who think they don't have a good singing voice. You can hum!

1. For this one, you will need to pick songs, but write down the title of the song on strips of paper and put those papers in the basket, bowl, or bag.
2. Players will take turns pulling out a name of a song, and they will have to hum the tune until someone guesses the name of the song!

Sounds easy, but sometimes without the words, it’s a lot harder than you would expect!

7. Alphabet Sing-Off 

This one is for those older children who know a lot of songs.  

1. Get a bean bag or potato to pass around (or anything you like really). 
2. Sing the alphabet and random stop on a letter. Whoever has the bean bag must sing a tune with the first word starting with the letter you stopped on. It doesn’t have to be the beginning of the song, it could be the chorus or just a line. As long as they start with the right letter. For example, if you stopped on the letter “P,” they could sing “Paw Patrol! Paw Patrol! Be There on the Double!” (You’re welcome for getting that stuck in your head again.)  If they can’t come up with something, then they are out. 
3. Start again from the beginning until there’s one winner left.

For even more fun musical game ideas, check out these links below:

Musical online games for Kids from PBS 

Best Learning Games for Kids from Redtri.com

Have a musical blast!

This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our Front Door page that has content on our monthly theme and links to all our content sections.