Freeze dance

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Age
3-5 years
Child Development
Vocabulary development; support play with talk and sign (e.g. interpreting directions); pretending
Equipment
Music (e.g. CD player, radio, singing)
Physical Activity

Vigorous play; creativity and self-expression; social skills; developing movement skills (e.g. locomotor and body control)

How to Play
  1. Invite the children to move to the music (e.g. walk, skip, roll, twirl, sway). Stop the music and call “freeze.” The challenge for the children is to stay perfectly still until you start the music again (e.g. three to four seconds).
  2. Play freeze dance differently by:
    1. Calling out different characters or objects and have the children move like: an ice-skater spinning; a puppy with a sore paw; a cat talking a bird; a sleep racing car; a donkey pulling a very heavy load…
Change it up / Alternatives / Additional Options
  • Read the book Slither, Swoop, Swing by Alex Ayliffe and act out the movements in the pictures. Take turns coming up with and calling out movement ideas. Use these actions in freeze dance.
  • While playing freeze dance have the children interpret feeling words with movement: happily, sadly, energetically, solemnly, mysteriously, joyfully, etc.

Excerpt from the HOP Early Learning Practitioners Resource (Decoda Literacy Solutions)