I’m still thinking about all of the ways I can integrate body percussion (where the body is the musical instrument) into my classroom. When I first heard of the concept, and saw it on YouTube, it was immediately apparent that kids would go nuts for it.
At the moment, I use body percussion as a highly effective attention grabber, and I’m also going to integrate it into my phonics work.
Some of the things I love about body percussion is that it is very active (its a perfect energiser), gets high participation and engagement, and requires concentration and attention. I think it will also be a strong support to learning and memory. Its one of those activities where kids don’t realise they’re learning or don’t have time to be self conscious, because they’re too busy having fun.
Importantly, it also affects the group dynamic by bringing all the children together as a cohesive group. That kind of environment definitely supports learning, and radically reduces classroom management issues. If you can bring a group together in terms of their relationships in its early stages of formation, the benefits are long-lasting, and deep.
In this sense, it has me thinking of other ways I can incorporate or adjust activities to achieve those same outcomes. And then replacing some of the existing activities I had been doing with those that are achieving multiple goals at one time, while the children are only aware that they’re having fun!
I love this video, too. I’ve never seen anything being used like this in the classroom. The children are learning, having fun, and giving their muscles and bodies a workout.
I’m excited to explore and integrate all of these ideas into my classes, including my classes with older students.
