Although I’ve found myself acknowledging fewer holidays in my classes over the years, many students are still looking to make connections to some of the more popular holidays. Halloween is one.
Last year I wrote about a silly song you could sing with your students, and in this post I want to highlight a few other songs that could fit into your curriculum.
A few songs that are fun for children to sing:
- Five Little Pumpkins (Raffi version) – great to reinforce the scales and stepwise motion
- Skin and Bones – teach the children to sing piano and forte while maintaining good tone
- Pick a Pumpkin – introduce sixteenth notes (tika tika)
- This is Halloween – perhaps just sing the chorus, which is great for teaching “tika ti”
And some songs for listening and moving:
- Theme from The Addams Family – snap or get out some claves to play along
- Monster Mash – great for dancing, have the students create their own “monster mash”
- Thriller – you know you want to teach them part of this dance…
- Ghostbusters theme – great for adding some actions or dramatic play
In Music, this is a great time of year to explore that beautiful instrument known as the human voice. Do some vocalizing through ghostly wails. Practice dynamic range with sneaky monsters and surprised victims. Explore the different timbres of the voice, and discuss the incredible effects of changing timbres, dynamics, and pitch ranges. For younger children, try this book.
Finally, check out this post or this other post for some great classical music ideas to accompany the season of ghouls and spirits.