You could get a Wiggles cd there are lots of cute dance songs like “Shake your sillys out” that will get the kiddo going.

Have maracas type things for the kids to shake. You can easily make some with rice and small water bottles.

Here are some other easy to make instuments:

http://www.thefamilycorner.com/family/kids/crafts/9_musical_instruments.shtml

Here is another site i just found with lots of cute ideas

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/movement.html

Try the Sticky Kids. They do some really good Cd’s which I have often used. If you want to do your own thing then the important thing is to get them listening carefully before they start rushing around. To start have them all sitting down in the hall/room. Explain you are going to use a tambourine and make it get louder and louder. They must pretend to be a little seed and grow bigger and bigger as it gets louder. When it stops they must curl up again. Do that a few times then let them move around and use a maraca, if it is loud they go fast if it is quiet they go slowly, when it stops they must stop. Then you can get more adventurous with two instruments and jumping or hopping. Small children need quite rigid boundaries or they will just rush around and pay no attention to the instruments.

Definitely “head,shoulders,knees and toes”. They use this song in Baby Einstein, and it seems like toddlers never get sick of it. Also, if you are doing stuff where you are the “leader”, hand puppets really help for maintaining some aspect of the kids’ attention. Good luck! Instruments sound like a great idea.

I think rhythm sticks would be fabulous for kids this age (they even have songs/cds that give instructions on what to do with the sticks: tap them high, tap them low, tap them fast, tap them slow, etc)…or scarves to toss and wiggle. I think anything that would make the music more visual/tactile for the kids would be perfect!