Marching Music & Activities
$15.00
Marches are a great style of music motivating students to move and respond. The infectious beat of a march seems to elicit a response from even the youngest of students. Using march music as students enter and exit the classroom provides focus during these transitions. It is an excellent choice to encourage movement whether it is used for entering the teaching space or as a movement break.
Explore marching as a thematic unit or use the two original instrumental marches and four songs in this collection as a movement activity or fun songs to sing.
Instrumental songs for marching (Original Donna Rhodenizer songs)
- September March
- January March (Marshmallow March)
September March and January March are selected from a 12-song series of marches Donna created to use with her students. A variety of activities are suggested for use with these marches including ways to incorporate keeping the beat, moving and responding to phrases, silent beat keeping, dynamics and exploring facial expression.
Songs to sing
- March Quickly
- Deedle Deedle Dumpling
- The Ants Go Marching
- Midnight March
March Quickly is a singing game for young, emerging singers to internalize the beat and the tone sets s-m, s-l-s and s-m-d.
Deedle Deedle Dumpling is a singing game that includes a unique way to explore the accented beats of a march in 2/4 time. In addition, it can be used with kindergarten and grade 1 students to prepare and internalize s-m-d combinations and with grade 2 students for labelling and practicing s-m-d combinations.
The Ants Go Marching is a well-loved traditional song, sung at many campfires and on long road trips helping to pass the time. Add marching while singing the song. As well, students can make up their own verses, providing a chance to work on composing skills!
Midnight March is a delightful story about toy soldiers who wake up at midnight to march around the toy shop. They practice their left-right marching steps and eventually return to the shelf where they go back to sleep until it is time for the next midnight march. Repetitious words, a simple melody with a narrow vocal range and easy actions make this a fun song for classroom use and also a winner for school concerts or vocal recitals.
Midnight March has French lyrics, creating the song, La marche de minuit. Use the French version as a language study or wherever a simple French song is required.
Listen to melody + accompaniment – Midnight March:
Download Includes:
- Vocal scores (March Quickly, Deedle Deedle Dumpling, The Ants Go Marching, Midnight March)
- Lead sheet (The Ants Go Marching, Midnight March)
- Full score (Midnight March)
- Lyrics (The Ants Go Marching, Midnight March)
- Instrumental accompaniment track with melody guide (Midnight March)
- Piano accompaniment track (Midnight March)
- French language study (La marche de minuit) (vocal score and lyrics)
- Instrumental – lead sheet (September March)
- Instrumental track (September March)
- Instrumental – lead sheet (January March)
- Instrumental track (January March)
- Teaching tips and strategies
- LINKS
- List of YouTube links to samples of famous marches for listening, moving and viewing
- Instructional videos (links)
- Marching Activities with Donna – Marching into March
- September March (with teaching tips)
- September March (demo)
Purchase Midnight March separately
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Marching Music & Activities
Follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the accompaniment with melody guide for Midnight March.
September March
January March
Discussion
Use Midnight March as a discussion starter.
- What do you think the toys would do if they were allowed to wake up and play in the toy store when nobody was around?
- What other toys do you think would want to join in the fun?
- Would you like to sneak in the toy store to watch the toys playing?
Movement Activities
Discuss the musical style of a march.
Listen to a few examples of marches.
Play a variety of marches as students are entering and/or exiting music class. Encourage them to march along with the music.
Add dynamics to the marching by calling out dynamic changes: loud, soft, tiptoe, stomp, etc. Students will need to adjust their steps to generate the dynamic that has been called out.
Keep the Beat
Keep the beat by patsching (patting both hands with flat palms on the thighs).
Keep the beat using other body percussion i.e., tapping the shoulders, hot potato fists, tapping the end of your nose, bending the knees while standing in one spot, windshield wiper hands, tick tocking index fingers, etc.
Marches can be written in 2/4, 4/4 or 6/8 meter. Beat one will be stronger than the other beats. This is easiest to hear in 2/4 meter.
- Find a march written in 2/4 meter.
- Move around the room keeping the beat by marching as you listen to the song.
- Take one shoe off. Start marching on beat one with the “shoe” foot and listen for the accented beat one that is created by stepping shoe, sock, shoe, sock.
Sing the song Deedle Deedle Dumpling
- March with one shoe off and one shoe on. Begin marching on beat one with the “shoe” foot and listen for the accent on beat one.
The main character in this song (John) has gone to bed with one shoe off and one shoe on. Maybe he was so tired he fell asleep before he could take off the second shoe. Maybe he had been practicing marching and listening for the accented beat!
March Music & Activities
I love including marches with my elementary music classes. There is something about a cheery march that gets children moving to the beat, almost instinctively. I wanted a march for some "entering the classroom" music, so I started creating my own using my keyboard. My marches needed to be long enough to last while the students were entering the room and getting to their spots, but not too long so the children would lose interest.
I started amassing a number of these marches and I needed to give them names to keep track of them. September March was written at the beginning of the school year and the title made sense to me. However, as I thought about the title, it amused me to think that September March was created by combining two months of the year. I started labelling my marches with names of months and continued to create new songs until I had a set of 12. Now I have marches from January March through to December March. Not content to just have these amusing combinations, I have also given each march a secondary name that relates to the month that they represent, i.e. January March is subtitled Marshmallow March as a nod to all the snow we get at that time of year. The only month that doesn’t have a subtitle is my first composition, September March.
As I write these composer’s notes, only two of my marches have been introduced outside of my music room to date. However, at some point in time all twelve may be presented as a collection giving children and teachers lots of marching options.
Midnight March is a song I wrote about marching toy soldiers. It has its own composer’s story included at https://donnaandandy.com/product/midnight-march-song-by-donna-rhodenizer/
Read more about Marching Music & Activities in this blog post. Enjoy!
Sing songs written in marching style
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| License | Classroom / Studio License |
|---|---|
| Context | Action / Movement Songs, Action Songs, Choir – Elementary, Choir Repertoire, Classroom Songs, Movement Songs, Novelty, Singing Games, Small Group Class, Teaching Songs / Pedagogy, Vocal Solo, Choir – Unison, French |
| Topic | Christmas, Imagination, Action Songs, Childhood, Movement Songs |
| Level | |
| Composer | Donna Rhodenizer |
| Music | Donna Rhodenizer, Traditional – arranged by Donna Rhodenizer |
| Lyrics | Donna Rhodenizer |
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