In Like An Animal the children acts out animal movements to music! A great game for younger kids to learn more about animals, their movements and dancing!
Like An Animal could be seen as a development of the classic teachings of “The cow says moo” an such. Here the children acts out animal movements to music. Since the game is intended for toddlers and younger kids there are no specific rules other than to have fun and move around. Not to shabby I would say. A great game for younger kids!
You will need
- Any kind of dance friendly music and something to play the music from. Toddlers surprisingly aren´t that picky when it comes to sound quality. So usually even a phone-speaker will do the job. However the bigger group of dancing toddlers, the bigger speaker might be necessary.
- (If you know how to play guitar this is also a great way to show off your skills to the other parents!)
Preparations
This is one of those good party games where you can all just sit down on the floor for a while. No preparations needed other than deciding what music to play.
A perfect game for some quality adults-sit-your-bum-down-and-rest-time. While the kids do the work. A win for everyone.
How to play Like An Animal
- Have the kids spread out over the designated area.
- Explain (using your best efforts) to the kids that when the music starts they are supposed to do something (a movement or a sound) like a specific animal would. You can for example say “When you music starts you all need to jump like a frog“, “…crawl like a worm“, “…sing along to the music like a cow” or maybe “…sleepwalk like a bumblebee“.
- The weirder the task the greater the fun. It´s usually good to start out with some easy things to do. Then move on to more difficult (and weird!) movements and sounds.
- To chill the kids out after an intense game of being animals it´s a good idea to finish of the game by calling out slow things to do (and also maybe slow down the music). Things like “…yawn like a sloth” or “…fall asleep like a butterfly” usually calms the setting down.
Did you like this game? Or do you have cool tweaks and changes that can be made to make i more fun? Don´t be shy! Let us know in comments.