Spooky Season is upon us, friends! I love Fall and Halloween, but like you, I’m busy. I don’t want to spend lots of time planning seasonal and holiday activities, but I still want my students to get those fun and festive experiences. Today I wanted to share with you the ways that I incorporate Halloween and spooky activities in my lessons with little effort.
Vocal Exploration
In Pre-K, and Kinder, we start every music class with vocal exploration. Most of the time that means pre-made pathways that I project on the SMARTBoard. Easy peasy. However, sometimes we mix it up. In all of my vocal exploration files, I include blank slides for students to create their own pathways. A student draws a pathway on the SMARTBoard, and the whole class follows it together. Of course this is a kid favorite, since they all want to hear their classmates try their creation. I’ve also handed out copies of the printable versions, so that the students can take home their pathways.
Using manipulatives is another fun way of incorporating spooky or fall things into vocal exploration. Give fake leaves, tissue or coffee filter “ghosts,” or bat rings to the kids so that they can move their objects up and down with their voices. And bonus points if you use the coffee filter “ghosts,” since they can be single use (take that, COVID!), and very affordable. Want something tactile to make pathways with? You could hand out white string or yarn, and have children make a pathway to a spider’s web. There are so many options for voice exploration!
Movement
Movement is crucial–especially when students are hopped up on sugar from their class parties! Hand out scarves to have students move them like flying ghosts (or bats if you are doing “spooky” instead). You can even reuse the manipulatives from the vocal exploration. Put on Classical or Halloween music, and the students can move with the music. Spooky activities don’t always have to be instagram-worthy, or super complicated!
Music and Movement Cards are a staple for movement breaks and steady beat practice in my classroom. Read more about how I incorporate these in my lessons by clicking here. In my own music room, I use the Fall and Halloween cards, and I mix them together. That way, if a student who doesn’t celebrate Halloween is in your class, they can do the moves that they feel comfortable with. I put on my Fall playlist, and the students move within their own space, using the cards as a guide.
In the Hall of the Mountain King is another October favorite, so you’ll see me mention it again later in this post. 😉 But for now, let’s talk about using it for movement. We practice tempos with In the Hall of the Mountain King, so we do the movements for Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes to the rhythm of the piece. By the end, they are giggling and a bit worn out.
Play-Alongs
Play-alongs are such an engaging activity that students enjoy. This year, you can modify as needed for distance learning or social distancing in the classroom. Use body percussion, pencils, rhythm sticks, or other easy-to-clean materials to make it work for your situation. If you are practicing tika-ti and ti-tika rhythms with upper grades, there are two great options for spooky activities. Treblemakers from Jennifer Patterson has a fun play-along resource for the song “This is Halloween.” Students might recognize this song from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they’ll get lot of practice with ti-tika and tika-ti with this play-along.
The other play-along for this concept is more spooky than specifically Halloween: “Fossils” from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. I’ve created a file I use when teaching “Fossils,” and I’d like to share it with you, for free. At the end of this blog post, you can fill out the form to receive the file. If you’re already a member of The Cookie Club, use your access code to find it in the free resource library. 🙂
Well I said I’d get back to In the Hall of the Mountain King, so here we go! My friend Michelle at The Musical Rose has a great play-along resource for this piece. Get out your egg shakers for this spooky activity (thank goodness they’re easy to sanitize!). We use this resource to practice half note, but if I don’t project the notation, we can review tempos and/or dynamics with the younger kids. Also, it’s relatively quiet, yet joyful for the students!
Composing
My students do a lot of composing to practice melodic and rhythmic concepts. Usually, I like to use seasonal mini erasers on the staff or laminated beat chart to add some Halloween flair. Pumpkins, black cats, or spiders, for example, will give a nod to the season while still keeping the activity accessible for students who don’t celebrate the holiday. Below is an example of how I used the sugar skull erasers I found for Day of the Dead. You can read more about this activity here.
However this year, I’ve created Drag and Drop Composing to cut down on germs. Students can bring their devices, and move around the Fall or Halloween icons on Google Slides to create their own rhythms. If you want to read more about how I use Digital Composing, click here. To do this whole group, project it on the board, and have students come up to create the rhythm. See, spooky activities don’t need to be super different from your everyday lessons to be special to your students!
Another composition manipulative that would work well for COVID times is cotton swabs. Just like how many of us use popsicle sticks to have students create rhythms, students can use cotton swabs to make their rhythms look like bones. Hand out strips of black construction paper and handfuls of cotton swabs, and let the rhythm practice begin. What I love about this is that the materials are inexpensive and disposable for a sanitary experience. If you want to reuse the construction paper, laminate it or put it in a plastic pocket so that it can be sanitized between uses.
Read Alouds
Incorporating a children’s book is a special way to add spooky fun to music class. Below is a list of books I have used in October with my own students.
**Many of the book links below are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase from this link, I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
- One Spooky Night
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
- Five Little Pumpkins
- The Halloween House
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves
- Dem Bones
- It’s Skeleton Time
So what would you add to this list? Do you enjoy October in the music room? Do you incorporate Halloween songs, or more spooky activities?Comment below with your thoughts or questions. I’d love to hear from you!
Happy teaching!
No Comments