Do vocal warmups with spooky sounds.

Echo the sounds that you hear.

Invite the kids to move to the beat - dance, twist, hop, turn, sway.

Teachers starts the music. When the teacher hits pause, all FREEZE.
Some teachers play this as an elimination - if you're moving after the music stops, you sit down.
A fun variant is to have the kids freeze and make a pose. You might make a pose like a pumpkin or cat or skeleton.

OR - play instruments with the music.
If grade ones have not learned to read rhythms, have them play the beat with the recording.
If the students do know how to read rhythms, create some patterns as a class, and play them with the music.

Review the song "Today is Monday."

Play instruments with the song, playing the day of the week and the name of the food.

Monday meatballs - would be played ta ta ta ta.

Teach the song by rote. This song is in a minor key which gives it an interesting sound. Can you think of movements that you could do with the song?

Play it again, and sing and create movements like bats, cats, and robots.

Although this song is suitable for the “Halloween” season, it doesn’t say anything about witches so should be acceptable for all children to sing.

Create Sound effects for the song "Bats and Cats."

Think of ways to make sounds for each verse.
1. Bats fly across the sky: flap a newspaper or notebook
2. Black cats creep in the night: pound pool noodle scrapers on desk
3. Robots go clink and clank: play 2 metal spoons or triangle

Try out the sounds. If you like them, keep them. If not, try different sounds.

Playing and Creating: Add sound effects to each verse. For the first verse, “Bats fly across the sky,” students could flap newspapers. In the second verse, they could tap the rhythm of the words “meow, meow, meow” on jingle taps or triangles. In the third verse, they could tap the rhythm of the words “Ee ee ee ee ee ee ee” on woodblocks or rhythm instruments. If there are not a lot of instruments in the classroom, use found sounds -
clink glass bottles or tap pencils on the desk. Ask the children to think of new verses that could be added to the song.

Teach the poem “Deedle Deedle Dumpling.”

Have the students take one shoe off and step the beat, starting with the shoe that has a foot.

Ask them if some beats feel stronger than others.

Explain that a beat that feels stronger is called an “accented” or "strong" beat.

Draw an accent over the strong beat.

Explain to the students that a barline comes before an accented or "strong" beat.

Learn to sing "I Can Pretend" and move to the music.

Each verse will have a different animal.
Verse 1: bird
Verse 2: horse
Verse 3: frog

During the instrumental part, move like the animal.

Make up your own verses for "I Can Pretend."

I can pretend I'm something else can you.
I can pretend I'm something else can you.
I'll pretend that I'm a __________________
and then I'll ___________ around the room.
I'll pretend that I'm a __________________.
Can you?

Choose 3 different animals and sing and move to the song.

Listen to the poem and the piece of music. Can you identify when the xylophone is playing and when the clarinet is playing?

Each time they hear the fossils theme (xylophone), have the sutdents pretend to be dinosaurs coming to life in a museum. Each time they hear the fossils theme, have students pretend to be dinosaurs. When the variations play, have the dinosaurs freeze in place so the security guard won't find out they are alive. The teacher (or a group of students) can pretend to be the guard, looking to find the source of the noise.

Sing "The Music Time is Over."