Paper Cup Pop – Younger: I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

What can you do with a paper cup?

What can you do with a paper cup with a group of children?

What can you do with a paper cup with a group of children as an activity to learn a song?

Why does using a paper cup make learning a song so much fun?<grin>

All great questions! Here’s one example of a movement pattern using paper cups for younger children. (To use paper cup movements with older children, the movements need to be more complicated.)

Pass out the paper cups and ask, “Can your hands follow my hands?”

Grab the paper cup in one hand and tap it for 8 beats with the other hand as you sing the song (I call this a pop). (The pop starts on the second half of the word “be-long.”)

Switch to the thigh of your leg and patsch your leg of 8 beats. (The switch comes on the word “latter-day.”)

Switch to the shoulder, crossing your body to tap 8 times. (Start there on the word “know.”)

Pop the cup again, tapping for 8 beats. (Start on the word “fol-low.”)

You can repeat that sequence again, or come up with new places to tap or pop the cup.  For younger children, I stay in one place for eight beats.  It takes a four year old about that long to really figure out where and how to tap<grin>.

The children are moving to a steady beat (great for their executive function frontal lobes).  They are learning body placement (where is my body in space skills). They are active, involved, participating, and generally enthusiastic. As they participate, the words you as the teacher sing just seem to slip into their heads unconsciously!