Have you ever used a Stretchy Band?
I love movement props for my preschool and kindergarten music groups. One of my favorite movement props? Hands down, the Stretchy Band. The stretchy band is exactly that, a big band that is flexible, stretchy and made with elastic and a soft, colorful fabric. The Stretchy Band is machine washable, making super easy to keep it clean!
Whether it be for my early childhood music lessons or for music therapy sessions, the Stretchy Band is very versatile to work on different goals, movements, and helping us get our “sillies out.”
The Stretchy Band that I use is by Bear Paw Creek. Bear Paw Creek is my favorite store to get movement props for my preschool and kindergarten music classes. They actually specialize in creating movement props and products “to enrich the lives of others through creative movement and music.”
I wrote a guest blog post on Bear Paw Creek’s website all about how I use the Stretchy Band for creative movement that you can read here.
On this blog post, I’m sharing with you a fun and engaging song I specifically wrote for the Stretchy Band called “Stretch It Out.”
This movement song for the Stretchy Band is not only great to engage in different movements, but we can also ask the kids to come up with their own movements and share them with the group.
Some of the movements we can play with when using a Stretchy Band are:
in and out
up and down
above (i.e.above your head) and below (i.e. below your knees)
shaking
making a circle (or learning/practicing other shapes)
pedaling a bike with our hands
rowing
fast and slow
side to side
open and close
We can practice the steady beat and explore other rhythms. With the Stretchy Band, we also have a visual representation of what space and boundaries can look like (& we can learn about our personal space).
Check out this YouTube video of the song “Stretch It Out”, my song for the Stretchy Band.
Did you know you can also use the Stretchy Band to teach literacy skills? Music therapist Kathy Schumacher, MT-BC, who is also the instructor of our professional development course Literacy For Littles, shares about using the elements of music to teach literacy skills such as word substitution, syllable segmentation, and rhyming on her blog Tuneful Teaching. Kathy has a blog post about using the Stretchy Band to teach literacy which you can read here.
You can purchase a Stretchy Band to use with your early childhood music groups here.
P.S. check out our Stretchy Band Songs for Preschool & Kindergarten Music Time on Spotify!
