Something magical happens in our house a few days ago! My boys, who stopped dancing with me around the living room years ago, did just that. And all I had to do was give them a scarf! They may used those scarves as swords to “fight” each other, but still. They were up and moving around the room, using their bodies, internalizing a steady beat and spending time with me and their sister. For us, that’s a win!

The scarves we used were part of This Magical, Musical Night Box and served s part of a prop for a magic trick. But the real magic happened when we cleared the living room, turned on some music and grabbed our scarves.

Why? Well, a few reasons. First off, it was something different. Color? Yes, please! Something we don’t use everyday? Yes, Please! Something I can scrunch up, throw, shake and drop without a negative outcome? DEFINITELY yes!

During your standard music lesson or class, learners sit still. They have an instrument in hand that they hold quite, spend more time listening to instruction than playing and are expected to play with a steady rhythm as part of a small group or ensemble. But to practice internalizing rhythm, little musicians need to MOVE! And they preferably need to move their WHOLE bodies. They quite literally need to feel the beat! For this reason, scarves are an amazing resource to add to your music and movement activities.

Not to mention…

• Scarves serve as extension to one’s body, encouraging movement from even the shyest of dancers. If you ask your learner(s) to wiggle their scarf, they HAVE to move their bodies!

• Scarves provide visual feedback! You can provide verbal cues (move your scarf high/low/fast/slow) to which your learner(s) then receive immediate feedback when they watch their scarves. How cool is that?!

Give it a try and tell us what you think! Do scarves bring out the dancing feet in your family or classroom? Let us know in the comments!

Check out the playlist we danced to!

Our scarves were included with Activities for the book This Magical Musical Night by Rhonda Gowler Greene so of course we had to make a playlist full of songs about magic!