Dancing In The Classroom

Most children love to dance! Its fun and energetic. A quick dance is a great busy break at any time during the day and is a great energy burner for wet play times. I love to dance too and where better to do it than with a bunch of Infants who are expecting me to be the next J. Lo – which I most certainly am not.

You don’t need to be a great, or even a good dancer to have fun with dance in school. There are some great old classic songs, and some new ones too, that are really easy to add a dance routine to, or let the children create a dance routine to. Creating dance routines for the children is a great memory exercise as well as helping with coordination and spacial awareness.

I have a play list of songs on my spotify account, which I connect to a blu-tooth speaker in my classroom and with one press of a button we can have a disco at any time!  This year, I plan to start every day with a song, like a ‘wake-up-and-shake-up’ to start the day. Perhaps one song a week, I will see how it goes. I have included my top ten favourite dances to learn with children. If you have any other good ones, please feel free to share!

10. You don’t get much more traditional, when it comes to a groups dance song than ‘Follow The Leader’. The song leads most of the way for you but you can add your own bits in parts, or you can have the children leading the way if you’re too shy!

9. This is definitely the song for you if you have zero confidence in your dancing skills! The cha-cha slide leads the way completely and the kids love it because its so easy for them to follow. Its a good one to get the children who are that bit more reserved moving!

8. The Purple People Eater is a bit more of a tongue twister challenge for me! What infant doesnt love this song though? Its a big hit with the infants, you just might need to do some prep before for this one!

7. The Cartoon Heroes have a very different sound to anyone who has ever worked in Camp Korea – its the morning AM wake up call. But putting the early morning memories aside, this is a great morning starter song, and this step by step video makes it so easy to follow!

6. Agadoo makes your classroom feel like its summer all year round! Turn it on and dance the rainy winter mornings away!

5. Cotton Eye Joe brings me right back to school myself! This one is a great energy burner. Its fast and requires lots of jumping and lasso making!

4. The chicken dance. There is no explanation needed for this! If you don’t know the chicken dance, what rock have you been living under?

3. A dance list wouldn’t be complete without the Macarena

2. A partner to the Macarena – Whigfields Saturday Night is another great ‘learn one bit and repeat’ song! Guaranteed to wake everyone up

1 My favourite song is only a recent discovery and its a bit of a challenge! Its the Socu Bachi song and the dance routine looks okay at first! The kids will take over the playground with this one and will more than likely be better at it than the teachers!