Balloons: Oh! I Wish I Could Fly

Song and Balloon Extension Activity

One of my favorite “slam dunk” activities to start the year is “Balloon Time.” This has been one of the most popular posts on MusicXT, so you might be familiar with the way that I use balloons to teach a variety of musical and artistic concepts. I love how balloons build engagement with TIME SPACE ENERGY, and illustrates some important movement techniques including ANACRUSIS and awareness. I recently wrote a song that acts as a wonderful capstone to the activity, and gives the children a satisfying experience to apply the skills learned in an interesting way. I’ll share the song in this post as well as another demo video of Balloon Time! But first…

Housekeeping:

If you’ve been following my work, you’ve heard of MUSIC DRIVEN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT and more recently, my aspiration for BEAUTIFUL LESSONS, and I think one great way to get to our best teaching selves is to strive to TALK LESS and MAKE MORE MUSIC! On Monday Sept 23 at 7 PM, I’ll be holding the TEAMM Meeting on this subject, and more!

If you’ve been thinking about joining the TEAMM, now would be a great time! The conversations have been EXCELLENT, with many All-Stars sharing their experiences and building a community around these principles. Every week I learn about a new All-Star who’s using Dalcrozian ideas and specific content from MusicXT to bring powerful experiences to their students. Are you one of them? Leave a comment and let us know how its going!

From the Archive:

I’ve been performing this Balloon Time activity with students for over ten years, and I still stand behind it as a great introductory activity that invites students to grapple with many musical elements and discover sensations that will serve them well in the journey ahead. I also believe that the activity buys me a good deal of trust from the students, as it is wildly popular and fun. Who doesn’t like balloons? It is not hard to get students excited for this one.

Here is a quick example of the way I’ve been running the activity this year:

Even after all of these years, I am still looking for ways to grow the activity. I recently wrote a song that I can use after practicing the “short” and “tall” tosses that allows the students to explore the ideas and apply them in a beautiful and satisfying performance. Here’s the song: