Whether incorporating themes about the weather or the “spooky season”, there are so many possibilities when it comes to fall music lessons! In this blog post you’ll find just a few of the lessons I’ve picked up along the years to hopefully give you a new idea or two for your own fall lesson-planning.
Get Moving!
Here are a few ideas that are movement staples in our music room each fall.
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns
My students and I just love this piece. When it comes to orchestral music, it doesn’t get much spookier than this! I have come across a lot of different activities related to this musical selection, but I tend to just keep it pretty simple and use it for creative locomotor movement. I personally like to have my students envision a mysterious forest. As a class, we brainstorm a list of animals that may live in that forest- examples might include a wolf, a spider, a bat, a snake, etc. We then discuss how those animals move (spiders creep and crawl, snakes slide and slither, etc) and how we could use their movements to inspire our own. After we’ve discussed and practiced a bit, I play the recording and over the course of the song, I will display pictures of the different animals to dictate the student movements. We do this with locomotor movement, making sure to first review our expectations for movement around the music room. This activity can be super quick if you’re just looking for a way to get them up and moving!
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg
This is a favorite among music teachers this time of year, and for good reason; this is THE piece when it comes to accelerando! I have done two different movement activities with this piece depending on the age group of my students, whether or not we have time to pass out movement props, and other factors. My personal favorite (and the simplest!) version is to do the motions of “head and shoulders, knees and toes” along to the music. We think/gesture the following along to the melody of the piece: “Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees, and toes, knees and toes. Head and shoulders, knees and toes, eyes and ears and mouth, nose.” So simple, but SO fun, and SO effective at helping the students kinesthetically experience “accelerando”. I learned this lesson from MusicPlay, and here is a video demonstration by the cherished and dearly missed Denise Gagne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98g2IGBspIc
The other way I have taught this piece is by using tennis balls. This version of the activity is something I learned during my student teaching internship with the wonderful Grace Jordan. We would use tennis balls to bounce the steady beat and feel that gradual increase in tempo. You could keep it simple by just bouncing to the beat, or come up with a short pattern (“pass, pass, bounce, catch” for example, while passing from your right hand to left). Whatever works!
“Blowing in the Wind” by Stephanie Leavell
My students and I are obsessed with this song from @musicforkiddos. We use movement scarves and have simple movements to go along with each action in the song. Their favorite is when they get to tiptoe “sneak” and then toss their scarves in the air. I like to use this with my young students, but even my older students love it. Stephanie has an album dedicated to fall songs and there are several that are so fun for movement! Check the song out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5t5EtZKLBM
Spooky Stories
I try to incorporate book-based lessons as much as possible in our classroom. These books have all been favorites among my students:
The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
This is one of my absolute favorite lessons for kindergarten. If you aren’t familiar with this book- it tells the story of a little old lady who encounters some mysterious items while on her walk through the woods. There are gloves that clap, a hat that nods, a shirt that shakes, and more. Sometimes I just have the students perform the motions as we read. But my favorite way to utilize this story is to select instruments as a class to represent each item/sound that the little old lady encounters. The students get to experience the concept of being in charge of one specific part in an ensemble, instead of all of us playing the same thing at the same time. They get to practice taking turns, listening, and watching the conductor for their cue. It’s a blast and such a simple story to use in the fall!
Bedtime at the Swamp by Kristyn Crow
I learned about this book while attending an FMEA conference session several years ago that was presented by Josh Southard. The story has a wonderful refrain- “splish splash rumba rumba bim bam boom”. Along with the fact that it’s a very fun, silly story, you can read the entire book very rhythmically and it all flows so well. My students keep a steady beat or ostinato going on the barred instruments while I read, and then every time we get to the refrain we practice our pentatonic improvisation. You can find the full lesson plan in Josh Southard’s book “Sing and Play, Stories All Day”. This is a very unique book with some GREAT illustrations!
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Kindergarten & 1st grade always have a unit themed around spiders this time of year at my school, and I love to use that theme in music class as well. Spiders are a great way to incorporate a little something “creepy” in the fall without going overboard. This lesson comes from the 1st grade Game Plan curriculum by Jeff Kriske and Randy Delelles. They created a simple speech pattern to use as a refrain as you read the story. We’ve done it a variety of ways- just speech, body percussion, or simple instruments like rhythm sticks. You can check out all the details in the Grade 1 Game Plan book.
Singing Games Galore
I adore the variety of singing games and activities that we have to choose from this time of year. It’s a great opportunity to get students used to singing and performing in a minor tonality.
Pass the Pumpkin
This is a classic game that I use every single fall, and I have seen so many awesome game variations from different music teachers. I like to tweak the lyrics- instead of “listen to the spooky sound” we sing “listen to the minor sound”, as this song is often an introduction to our discussion of major vs. minor. We sit in a circle and pass our (fake) pumpkin to the steady beat. Whoever has the pumpkin at the end of the song is “out”. In my classroom, that means that they get to leave the circle and go choose an instrument! We usually play it with unpitched instruments in the younger grades and barred instruments in the older grades. We keep playing until all students have been eliminated and have transitioned to keeping the beat with their instruments. They ask for this game every year!
“Who?” From Game Plan grade 2
This is another lesson from Game Plan by Jeff Kriske and Randy Delelles. This lesson comes from their 2nd grade curriculum book, and it is a singing & movement game to practice the concepts of crescendo and decrescendo. The students stand in a formation like they are the trees of the forest, and one student is the “owl”. Another student is trying to find the “owl”, and they must listen to the volume of the singing to guide them. The class continues to sing the song, but gets louder if the seeker is close to the owl, and softer as they move further away. I tell my students it’s a bit like the hot/cold game. They really love it, and this is a game that gets even my most reluctant singers to participate. Full details can be found in the Grade 2 Game Plan book!
Spider web vocal exploration
To go along with the previously mentioned spider unit I do with my younger students, one of my other favorite spider activities involves vocal exploration. Over the course of a few weeks, we practice tracking melodic lines & singing high/low by following visuals of a spider and a web (line) in different formations. Once the students are comfortable following these visuals, I choose a week where every student gets a spider (a plastic spider ring) and a piece of web (a few inches of white yarn). The students get to create their own web shape by laying the yarn out on the floor, and then they practice tracking it and singing along with their spider. We take turns sharing our webs and demonstrating what our design sounds like. I then let the students take their spider & web home, encouraging them to create a new design and demonstrate their singing voice for someone in their family. They are always so excited, and I’ve even received photos/videos from families of their students showing off their spider singing. So fun!
Do you have any fall lesson staples? Any ideas you love to use during “spooky season”. Please share them with the rest of our membership in the comments- we’d love to hear about what you have planned.
Wishing you all a fabulous fall! Stay spooky!
-Madison Kerr
District 4 Chair
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