Superheroes, Princesses, Dinosaurs, Monsters…!

Superheroes, Princesses, Dinosaurs, Monsters…!  I'm sure you have some children in your setting who love to pretend to be one of the aforementioned.

So what has got me thinking about this?

To celebrate my son’s 14th birthday we visited Alton Towers.  I was sitting in the X-Sector section, waiting for my two children to come off a ride, and I heard music that reminded me of superhero theme music and it got me think about the different type of music we let our children experience.

Have you thought about playing film/theme music in your setting?

It could link into your superheroes topic or the children’s interests of Princesses, Dinosaurs, Monsters…  To keep everyone happy you could focus on a different themed piece of music each week for half a term.

You may be thinking, okay I can play them some music but what do we do with it?

There’s so much that can come from or whilst listening to music:

Moving to the music:

Ask the children to move like the themed character that the music is representing.  You may like to give the children props to help them get into character

• Superhero capes or fabric that could be like a cape. 
• Scarves to float like princesses,
• Mats that the children move between like a dinosaur taking big strides...

Painting and Drawing

Put on some superhero music but don’t tell the children which film it’s from and just ask the children to draw or paint their own superhero.  Do the same with princes/princess, monsters, dragons, knights…  If they are very young just let them paint or draw anything whilst listening to the music.

Constructing

Using bricks, lego, junk modelling... create a

• superheroes cave
• princesses or princes castle
• monsters den 

If using boxes it could be that they create a cave/den/castle big enough to fit children in!

Role play area

Sometimes have the music playing in your ...... land (fill in the gap) whilst the children are playing e.g. dinosaur land, superhero land , princess land...

Have dressing up clothes that the children can change into whilst the music is playing so that they can get into character… If you decide to use superhero dressing up clothes I would talk to the children about non fighting superheroes just in case the children get carried away!

Let your imagination run free and see what other ideas you can come up with from themed music.

If you would like music activity ideas based on pieces of music, take a look at Early Years Music Ideas Membership: https://www.musicintheearlyyears.com/early-years-music-ideas-2-to-5 

Happy music making!