The classic songs, rhymes, and motions provide a basis for understanding musical form and expression.

These activities bring out the strong movement impulses in children, who love to burn off energy by spontaneously dancing around the living room or running from place to place. Children will develop an awareness for their bodies, time, space, weight, locomotion, flow, and shape. Performed quickly or slowly, with music or without, solo or in a group, these activities make for fun, engaging educational experiences for children.

These wonderful to play in circles have been passed down from generation to generation and are full of music, wonder, magic, and make-believe. Some of these circle games are stationary games in which one child chases after another while the rest of the group does not move, while others begin with stationary circles but end with traveling circles as, one by one, children join a group moving around the circle. All of these games encourage a variety of developmentally appropriate behaviors, including social skills, cognitive development, creativity, language development, motor skills, and...

All of the songs and rhymes in this book, passed down from generation to generation, are full of wonder, magic, and make-believe and encourage children--and parents--to move with the beat. This collection includes beat games in which the song or rhyme follows the child's preferred beat tempo, games in which everyone stays in one place and the beat is felt in hand movements, and activities where the beat is put in the feet as everyone travels around the room.