If you're looking for Halloween music lessons, these Halloween folk songs and singing games will be a hit in your elementary music class!
These music therapy Halloween freebies include chants, rhymes, instrument activities, a song mix, and a resource list of Halloween song stories.
Adjusting your night routine activities to fall season can make you feel more warm & cozy. In this post you'll find autumnal ideas to fill your evenings with:
Teach your students all about Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens with a variety of fun lessons. Dance Macabre is the ...
Our weather has finally changed here in Southern California. Trees are beginning to change colors and mornings and evenings are cooling down. Neighborhoods have started putting out pumpkin decorations and those who plan ahead have already begun to gather candy. Halloween is coming. I shared in
Tuning Up, the World of Music by Mabelle Glenn, Helen S. Leavitt, Victor L. F. Rebmann, Earl L. Baker and C. Valentine Kirby. Ginn and Company, 1936. Various illustrators.
During October, Halloween music class doesn’t have to be “out of control”. Use these quick and easy Halloween music class activities.
Teach your students all about Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens with a variety of fun lessons. Dance Macabre is the ...
I know, I know. It's not "technically" fall yet, but last week we had a break in the heat and humidity, and it was dreamy. We got spoiled and now I am stubbornly still in my leggings, begging for the cool weather to come back. (Did you see my fall capsule wardrobe?) But there's just
If you're in the mood for some eerie and chilling music, check out his haunting Halloween playlist featuring 30 spine-tingling songs.
October is one of the best times of In this post, I'll share some of the best Halloween activities, books, songs, and games for K-4 music class, including a bunch of things that are non-singing based.
I love this time of year in my classroom because it signals the beginning of a delightful string of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! The music of Halloween is especially fun̷…
I just got home from a week in the woods! Being surrounded by nature during this time of year inspired me to create an autumn playlist that is perfect for fall. These 24 songs are perfect to set the mood of cooler weather and the changing colors of nature.
Looking for engaging Halloween lessons for elementary music class? These are Fall activities are perfect for October in general music!
I've come across some wonderful music forautumn and Halloween that are just intime for some fall crafting.The first 2 are from a 1908 school songbook called, 'American School Songs'.The next 2 songs were from a children's songbook called,'The Music Hour'.I hope you enjoy these as much as I do andfind wonderful projects to use them on.Blessings,Angie
Today, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite Halloween activities to do with my older students: lights-off listening! Many of the activities I do during the weeks prior to Halloween tend to be geared toward younger students. I've struggled to find something that appeals to my older kids. Then, I came across this great product from Music with Sara Bibee: This guided listening unit is great for older students because it has information for a variety of spooky pieces, as well as videos and assessment worksheets. I immediately gravitated to the rating worksheets she provided. Students listen to certain pieces and give them a rating from 1-10 on how spooky they think the music is. You can also insert your own selections as the files are editable. I chose 9 of the pieces (and added a bonus one where they had to guess the title - it was "Jaws") for my students. I tried to include a variety so some were new, while others were recognizable for them. I felt bad about printing a page for every student when all they were doing is circling a number for their rating, so I used page protectors. This was awesome! I printed 25 pages in color and then slipped each one into a page protector. Every student was given a whiteboard marker and a small eraser (I have a set we use for rhythm writing) and spread them out around the room. They were able to circle their rating and erase it when we were all finished - no wasting of paper! Plus, I can use these for many years now! Hooray! Now, here's where the fun part comes in! My students struggle with listening at times because they want to wiggle, move, talk, etc. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with kids every day. I knew I could hook them by creating a spooky (not scary) environment as we listened to each piece. It would also be a fun and unique memory for them. So, I stumbled upon this fun Halloween rotating light on Amazon. It was only $10 and looked really fun! After all the students had their materials, I shut off the lights in my room and put this in the middle. It glowed and created some cool lighting on the ceiling as we listened to our music. Not only was it a spooky feature for our Halloween listening, but it was calming for several of my students that need to come down at the end of the day on a Friday afternoon. After we listened to all of the pieces, we came back together and talked briefly about things like composers, history, instruments, etc. I loved hearing the kids talk about music! They loved sharing their ideas with each other and comparing scores. It was a great introduction to listening and talking about different kinds of music. Clean up only took a minute because each student wiped down their sheet with their eraser and put away the markers - EASY! I love this activity and so did the kids. It gave them a chance to celebrate Halloween music in a way that was more "mature" for them. Yes, they love playing Halloween music games but this got them thinking and interacting in a unique way. Turning the lights off helped them focus but also created a spooky way to listen. I know this experience will stay with most of them and that makes my heart happy! Have you tried a unique listening experience before? I'd love to hear more ideas! Feel free to share below!
Whenever we host a party we always spend time before hand trying to make sure...
Who's loving fall already? It's still hot and humid here (gross), but I'm still reveling in the fact that we got to spend one glorious week in the mountains. I'll be sharing a full blog post of our stay in Jackson Hole, but until then, enjoy this updated fall playlist. I originally made this playlist
A Fall playlist with more than 75 songs. Perfect for cozy days snuggeled up in blankets or making an autumn road trip while it's raining.
Here's another Halloween song for you (surprise, surprise). This one I first taught during my practicum time with Cindy McCaskill in Boulder, CO. It can be found in Grace Nash's Holidays and Special Days book. (Grace Nash is very well known among Orff teachers. . .. some day I'd love to take a level.) Here it is: Verse 2: Halloween, Halloween, ghosts fly high. Halloween, Halloween, ghosts fly high. Goblins sit on fences, weating pumpkin pie. Halloween, Halloween, ooh, OH MY! To be honest, I actually forgot the second verse until I looked it up tonight. And Grace Nash has the last word of the first verse as "cats". Over the course of my teaching I accidentally changed it to bats. I do this with my 1st graders so I simplified the Orff part. In her book, Ms. Nash has a broken bordun, where as I have them play a straight bordun. I also have them add a triangle on the rests (as I'm using this to prepare rest right now.) Here's my Orff part: (The second line is the triangle and the third is a bass xylophone): Here's the slides of the PowerPoint that I use with this song: First, we sing it reading just the words of the song: Second, we sing it, keeping a steady beat and reading the words (aligned to the beats of the song): Third, we sing the song (text) while clapping the rhythm. I have replaced the text with iconic represtentation of the rhythm. As a class, we review that two small pumpkins on a beat are ti-ti and one big pumpkin on a beat is ta. We also talk about why there is a leaf (there is no sound on that beat). Next, we read the known rhythms of the song. Again, we talk about the leaf and how that is a beat of silence. We have not yet presented quarter rest so we leave the iconic notation there: Finally, after ta rest is presented, we revist this song and read it with the full rhythmic notation: I've got a "double-header" concert (4th and 5th grades) on Thursday, so we'll see if I can squeeze in another post before then. In the meantime, have a GREAT week everyone!
Halloween Is Coming from our Halloween songs for kids is a fun circle game that is full of all the essential spooky ingredients.
As I have been making lesson plans, I thought about all of you! Many are moms, aunts, grandmas, maybe even sister's to younger siblings. No matter what, most of us have young children somewhere in our lives so I thought I would share some of my musical knowledge with you! I love to try out my songs on my little nieces and nephews to see what they think first! I love it when my students get excited about the classical music I play for them. I always play something for them when they walk into my class and then when I am finished they tell me how it made them feel or what it made them think of. This is great for kids because sometimes it helps them to express emotion and it also gets their imaginations working! Afterward I tell them a little about the piece.
