Looking for fun songs and activities to do with your students this Fall? Here are five activities I use every fall in my K–5 music room. Each one lists the grade level, the skill it teaches and the materials you’ll need.
Fall music activities at a glance
Activity | Grades | Skill | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
Fall rhythm reading video | 2–4 | Tika-tika (sixteenth notes) | Projector or interactive white board, video |
“Leaves Are Falling” | K–1 | High and low | Tree picture, magnetic leaves (or Google Slides) |
Gourd and leaf rhythm composition | 1–3 | Rhythm composition for ta and ti-ti | Autumn manipulatives |
“Apple Tree” singing game | K–2 | Steady beat, ta and ti-ti, sol-mi, la, do | None |
Writing melody with leaves | 1–5 | Melodic dictation and staff notation | Leaf erasers, staff paper |
#1: Fall rhythm reading for Tika-Tika, or Sixteenth Notes
This fall-themed rhythm video gives students practice reading tika-tika alongside ta, ti-ti, and quarter rest as they follow the path of the leaf.
How to use it:
- Use it as a warm-up at the start of class.
- Or use it as a transition between rhythm activities.
I also created this one for half note, this one for syncopa, or eighth/ quarter/ eighth.
"Leaves Are Falling": a fall song for teaching high and low
I learned this song from Julie Swank in my Kodály Level I course at Capital University. It’s one of my favorite ways to practice high and low with young singers.
How to play:
- Put a tree picture on the board and scatter magnetic leaves around it.
- A student closes their eyes and picks a leaf.
- The teacher shows thumbs up or thumbs down to show whether or not the class should end high or low.
- Everyone sings the song, ending on the high or low note.
- The student opens their eyes and places the leaf high or low on the tree to match.
Teaching digitally? Make a copy of the Google Slides version.
#3: Gourd and Leaf rhythm composition
In this blog post, I write about how you can use autumn manipulatives to have students compose rhythm patterns. This can work in small groups or centers.
#4: "Apple Tree" Singing Game
“Apple Tree” is one of my favorite songs for the elementary music room, and is perfect this time of year! It can be used to teach ta and ti-ti, sol-mi (focusing on the 1st and 3rd phrases), la (focusing on the second phrase), do (focusing on the last phrase), AND steady beat!
For the game, students stand in circle, and teacher makes a tree with a child (the child stands inside the circle, the teacher stands outside the circle, and the two join hands.) The students sing the song and keep the beat in their feet. On the word “out,” the teacher and student who are the tree “catch” a child. That child then makes a tree with the student standing inside the circle, and the teacher chooses another child to be a tree with. The game continues until all but one child has been chosen to be a tree or is “out”; that student wins.
Here is a slightly different version of the game; the video was taken by Amy Abbott from Music a la Abbott.
#5: Writing melody with leaves
To have students practice melody, you could have them use leaf erasers with staff paper, to copy or dictate melodic patterns, like this:
This is such a fun and engaging way to improve melodic skills while celebrating the season of Autumn!
Looking for more fall activities? These no prep fall worksheets are perfect for Autumn, to practice rhythm, melody, note names, and more!
Happy teaching!
