For preschool teachers and parents · ages 2 to 6 · one phone, nothing else
Music games for kindergarten: nobody is out.
Music and singing games for nursery, preschool and home, sorted by age, for circle time and for calming down. Where a tune is needed, the phone sings it first: you don't have to know it.
Mika: “I play you every song, as often as you like. Whoever won't sing presses the button.”
Before you start: phone loud, and on an iPhone the silent switch off. A Bluetooth speaker helps in a big circle but isn't a must.
- From 3 · circle time or any timeEcho singing
Mika, the owl or the frog sings a short tune, the children sing it back and hear their echo as an instrument. Never wrong, just a reaction.
3–8 years · one round 5 min · a bit loudMic - From 4 · circle time, one child at a timeWhat note am I singing?
A child sings one note, Mika plays it back and says its name. No right and no wrong: every note has a name.
4–10 years · one round 3 min · a bit loudMic - From 5 · for calming downSame or different?
Mika plays two short tunes, the group shows thumbs up for same, a wobbly hand for different. When it's right, Mika howls.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · quietListen only - From 5 · sitting in the circle or standingHigher or lower?
Two notes: if the second goes up, everyone stretches tall like a giraffe; if it goes down, everyone curls up small like a mouse.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · quietListen only - From 5 · burning off energyClap it back
Mika claps a rhythm, the children clap it back. Anyone who'd rather not clap into the mic taps the big circle.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · loudMic - From 4 · a project at the tableWater glass experiment
Tune five plastic bottles with water until they make a scale. The phone says “a little more water”, and Mika plays them at the end.
4–8 years · one round 15 min · a bit loudMic
Which game for which age
The ages are rough: a group of four-year-olds can play like three-year-olds on some days. None of these games needs an instrument, only bodies, voices and sometimes the phone.
- Ages 2 to 3 · joining in is everything
Loud and quiet: everyone drums on their knees with their hands; you say “really loud”, then “really quiet, like a mouse”. Nobody has to get anything right.
Animal voices: the cow moos low, the little bird peeps high. You go first, the children copy. That's already higher or lower, just without the phone.
A song everyone knows: the phone plays it, you sing along, the children move to it.
- Ages 3 to 4 · copying
Echo singing with you: you sing “cuck-oo” on two notes, the group sings it back. Then “hel-lo”, then a name. Always all together, never one child alone. Afterwards Echo singing sings first: the owl or the frog, and the group answers.
Mouse and giraffe: you sing a high note, everyone stretches; a low one, everyone curls up. From five, Higher or lower? above takes over.
Freeze dance where nobody is out: the music stops, everyone freezes. Whoever wobbles just keeps playing and gets to stop the music next time.
- Ages 4 to 5 · listening closely
What note am I singing? At circle time every child who wants to sings one note into the phone and hears its name: “Woof! An A!”. Whoever doesn't want to taps the button.
The water glass experiment as a project for a small group at the table: fill the bottles, blow, listen, top up.
Guess the sound: eyes closed, you rustle paper, knock on the table, shake the keys. What was that?
- Ages 5 to 6 · taking the lead
Higher or lower? and Same or different? as a group game: everyone shows, one child taps what most of them show. Every child gets a turn at tapping.
Clap it back: Mika claps, everyone claps back. Then one child makes up a pattern and the others clap it.
Are You Sleeping as a round: two groups; the second starts when the first reaches “morning bells are ringing”.
A tune of their own: a child hums two bars into Brumm Kids, and the group hears it straight away as a track.
Circle time: ten minutes of music
- 1 · A sung hello
You sing the call on two or three notes, each child answers on the same notes. Whoever doesn't want to sing waves.
Who is here to-day?
Li-na is here!
- 2 · A note for everyone
Two or three children a day sing a note in What note am I singing?. Tomorrow it's the next ones' turn.
What note are you today? Sing a short one, Mika is listening.
- 3 · An echo
One round of Echo singing: Mika sings first, the whole group sings back.
- 4 · A song together
The phone plays it, everyone sings along. The second time you sing without the phone.
First we listen, then we sing along.
When the group needs to settle down
- The quiet minute
Close your eyes. Who can hear three sounds?
Then three children say what they heard. With two-year-olds, one sound is plenty.
- Humming quieter and quieter
Everyone hums one note together, quieter with every wave of your hand, until only the lips tickle.
- Listening instead of romping
Same or different? or Higher or lower? sitting down, answering only with hands, whispering instead of calling out.
- Are You Sleeping, very slowly
The phone plays it slowly and softly, you sing along, each verse quieter. At the end Brother John really is asleep.
Nobody is out: how it works
In none of these games is a child ever out, and none counts points against other children. Where the classic version takes someone out, there's a role instead of a penalty.
- Freeze dance and musical chairs
Whoever moves isn't taken out but stops the music next time. In musical chairs all the chairs stay and the children squeeze up together.
- Children who don't want to sing alone
Sing with everyone, with you as a pair, or tap the button that plays the song. Nobody has to sing solo.
- Children who find it too loud
Get to set the volume or stop the music. The games marked “quiet” on their card need no noise at all.
- Children who don't like being touched
No game here needs holding hands. In the circle, standing side by side is enough.
What you need
A phone with an up-to-date browser (Safari or Chrome). No sheet music, no instrument, nothing to print, no account, no musical training. The songs are old traditional songs that anyone may sing.
Only the games marked “Mic” use the microphone, and only once someone taps. What a child sings stays on the phone; nothing is uploaded (Brumm Kids privacy).
This page is new and hasn't been tried in a nursery yet. If you use it, tell us what worked and what didn't: hello@brumm.ai.