Allow your students to create their own music. Provide campers with materials to create an instrument, such as tin cans, plastic tubes, foam, cloth, wood, bells and sticks. Use a variety of instruments such as woodwind, drums and string instruments. You can also have local musicians or student bands help you demonstrate to the campers how each instrument is played. Then have your camp students present their creations to the camp and come up with cool names for their musical inventions.
Allow campers to play the music ball game to demonstrate tempo. Tempo is the pace of music that is based on the speed of a piece of music. Start the ball game with a slower tempo. Then progress to a faster tempo. Divide the campers into groups of three or four, depending on how many campers you have. Give each group its own meter---counting the number of beats from the downbeat (strong beat) to the next---such as "1," 2, 3, 4 or "1," 2, 3. The number "1" is the strong beat, or downbeat. Before you turn on the metronome, choose a song for the children to pass the ball. Each group of campers will form a circle and pass the ball to their partners according to the beat and tempo that you choose for them, without dropping the ball. Have one person in the group throw the ball up when he or she counts on the downbeat, then pass the ball to a partner on "2" and so on; or have the group throw the ball upward and clap to each beat as they pass the ball.
Demonstrate basic rhythmic patterns to your campers with a drum or bongo. Go in a natural environment and gather your campers together. Give each camper a drum or some form of a percussion instrument, such as a tambourine or triangle. Demonstrate proper hand techniques for holding and placement of the drum. Start off with basic rhythmic patterns, using right and left brain integration. Add singing and chanting while campers play their instruments. Also, teach your campers the history of the drum and its purpose.
Demonstrate to your campers some fun dances, such as the Chicken Dance, Macarena, Electric Slide and YMCA. Bring in local dancers from all disciplines---such as ballet, hip-hop, jazz and swing, if possible---to help demonstrate how to perform a variety of dance moves.