Free Printable Dance Pad!

Nursery Rhyme Printable Dance Pad

Do your kids enjoy watching shows with lots of nursery rhymes?  My kids do! And now we use nursery rhymes for everything. We play them in the car, at bath time, at mealtime, you name it.  Nursery rhymes help us get through the day! The printable dance pad makes it even more fun to get into the music!

Below is the first craft I made to get my kids more involved in their music. Printable dance pads! They’re like DDR pads for toddlers–much lower-tech but still get those tiny feet moving- they make screen time active time.

This craft is very simple to make, needs minimal supplies, and the little ones love it! Get the FREE DOWNLOAD at the bottom of the page. 

It’s a great low-cost addition to parties where all the kids know the words and can dance along. You can use it as an activity at the party or hand it out as a favor. What a cool way to remember a party!

The Build Your Own Dance Routine portion of the printable is a great way to get your kids to work on their memory skills, creativity, and color matching. For more information on all the benefits for dancing and using a routine, look at this post. 

Supplies

• Print out the free template. The template comes with the following pages:
  • 6 pages make up the Center of the dance pad.
  • 8 petals surround the center to complete the flower.

     

• This craft needs a large piece of corrugated cardboard, such as from a large moving box.
• You’ll also need glue. PVA or school glue is said to be the most effective for cardboard. If you have children who need instant gratification and they need it right now, hot glue will work too and it will set a little faster.
• Another way to get the cardboard to stick is duct tape. Not as pretty but it works.
• Even if you don’t stick this craft together with tape, I definitely recommend using tape to secure the cardboard to the ground when it’s time to dance. Nothing is worse than watching a toddler dance on cardboard and having it take their feet out from under them!I use painters tape on our laminate wood floor, it’s easy to remove and doesn’t leave any adhesive behind. If you want to make this fancier, you can use these no-slip pads. These are also great for the dinosaur head crafts.
• If you want to get really fancy with this craft, you can add these little squeakers under each step. It’s a great effect to have them make noise!

   

Step-By-Step Assembly of the Printable Dance Pad

Coming soon: the step-by-step YouTube video.

Petal Assembly

The petals will need to be assembled first. The green center will then be pasted over the ends of the petals to ensure a smooth look.

• Cut out the petals. Layout your cardboard. This can be a project board or moving boxes, any corrugated cardboard works!
• From left to right place the petals on the cardboard. Petals 1 and 8 are the end petals. You can switch up the petals however you want!
•  Connect the petals by the tips of the green tops to make a flower pattern. Don’t worry about the base of the petals lining up, the extra edges of the bases will be covered by the center.
• Glue in place.

Center Assembly

• Cut out the shapes. I recommend laying the numbering of the Center pages with the cut out pieces to ensure there is no confusion when completing the template.
• Pages 9, 10, and 11 make the top half of the center. Pages 12, 13, and 14 make the lower half of the Center.
• From left to right, connect page 9 of the Center to page 10 of the Center.
• Connect page 11 to the right side of page 10.
• Connect page 12 to the bottom of page 9.
• Connect page 13 to the bottom of page 10.
• Connect page 14 to the bottom of page 11.

• Lay out the petals to surround the Center.  The petals will not go all the way around the Center, there will be about an inch and a half of the base of the Center on either side.
• Using white or hot glue, paste the Center over the ends of the petals to give it a smooth finish.
• OPTIONAL STEP: If you are using the  squeakers, you will need to create a space for them to inflate so they will make noise. You will need a second piece of cardboard to back the first piece. Glue the squeakers to the back of the first piece of cardboard behind each petal. Now, around the edges, glue the two pieces of cardboard together so that the squeakers are sandwiched in between.

That’s it! You have a Do-dance pad for screen time!

Please secure the pad to the floor so your child doesn’t slip!

Download Your Free Printable Dance Pad and Routine Builder!

The download includes 28 pages! This includes the petals and center of the dance pad, as pictured above. It also includes your own Build Your Own Dance Routine Builder.