Looking for fun activities for Halloween, for your elementary music room? Today, I’m writing with three activities, which can be used in a socially distanced, virtual, or typical music classroom!
See the Old Witch
Here is the notation and game directions for the song “See the old witch”:
For the game (which you may have to wait to play, until we are no longer socially distancing), students sit in a circle, sitting down. One child is chosen to be “it” and has a penny in his/her hand. All other students close their eyes and put their hands behind their back. As they sing, the person who is “it” walks around the circle. At the end of the song, he/she drops the penny into the hands of whoever they are closest to. That child opens his/her eyes and chases “it” back to that child’s spot! The game continues with the chaser being “it.”
Last year, I created these free cards to have students compose their own patterns as a B section to “See the old witch.”
In a typical music classroom, you can have students work in small groups to create their own composition, with four cards, and then perform their composition as a rondo, as described in this blog post.
If you are in a socially distanced or virtual classroom, you could have students do the activity on Seesaw. Here are some visuals from a sample Seesaw I created (which you can add to your library by clicking here); thank you to Krista Wallden for the cute clip art!
Students can choose their cards, then record themselves speaking it. You could even ask them to perform in ABA form: students sing “See the old witch,” then perform their composition, then sing again!
If doing this activity synchronously, you could use this pumpkin timer to choose students to perform. Students could use their class numbers; if their class number is 5, and 5 is one of the numbers chosen, you can ask that student if they’d like to perform their composition! (Thanks to Sara Anderson for posting about this timer in my Facebook group!)
Miss White
I love this chant:
I’ve never learned a game with it, but kids love saying it! You could have students explore their voices by making ghost sounds, or drawing vocal exploration patterns.
If you are teaching virtually, you could have students go on a “Scavenger Hunt” by having them walk away from their devices to find a piece of paper and writing utensil. Then, they could draw a ghost, and then create their own ghost pattern, like in this blog post. When students are on their scavenger hunt, you could share your screen and show them this timer, so they know how much time they have left:
Halloween Music Choice Boards
These choice boards come in six levels; students choose three activities to complete, then fill out a Google form to tell you what they completed. These could work well in an in person classroom, or a virtual classroom. Click the picture below to check them out:
Here are a few images from the set. The first picture shows the home screen, where students choose activities. The second picture shows the Halloween art activity: students click the bat to draw Halloween pictures and then listen to their art being transformed into music (with Kandinsky in Chrome Music Lab). The third picture shows one of the questions in one of the rhythm games.
I hope this is helpful to you, as you prepare for Halloween in your music classroom (whatever that looks like right now!) Happy teaching, and Happy Halloween!
One Response
Hi Aileen,
I just want you to know that I love all of your resources. Thank you so much for taking care of us with great ideas and by providing amazing resources we can share with our students.