Do Vocal Warmups with Spooky Sounds

Do vocal warmups with spooky sounds.

Echo the sounds that you hear.

Play Freeze Dance or Play Instruments with the Music

Invite students 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 game. If you're moving after the music stops, you sit down.
A fun variant is to have students freeze and make a pose. You might make a pose like a pumpkin or a cat or a skeleton.
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Play instruments with the music.
If grade ones have not learned to read rhythms, have them play the beat with the recording.
If students do know how to read rhythms, create some patterns as a class and play them with the music.

Read the rhythms for "Icka Backa"

Read the rhythms. Read the melody using solfa hand signs or arm motions to show how the melody moves up and down.

Sing "Icka Backa"

Sing the song.

Play the game with "Icka Backa"

Form a circle. Pass a beach ball to the beat. If you have the beach ball on the word “you,” you’re out and sit down. You can also use “Icka Backa” to select racers. Pound fists, or tap shoulders of one student per beat. The student selected on the word “you” is racer one; the student opposite will also race. They speed walk around the circle, back to their own place. The first one to reach their place wins. They should then sit down so you know they’ve had turns.

Create unpitched accompaniment for "Icka Backa"

Have students create accompaniment with unpitched instruments. The students in the kids demo below chose to play sticks on the eighth notes and a triangle on the quarter notes. (Note: The printed manipulatives on their desks are available in the song under printables - Beat and Rhythm Worksheets page 4-5)

Create a Rondo with "Witch’s Stew" or "Icky Stew"

Create a rondo with "Witch’s Stew" or "Icky Stew".

Change the words "witch's stew" to "icky stew" for schools that don't do Halloween.

Create a Rondo with "Witch’s Stew"

Create a rondo with #24 "Witch’s Stew".

Have each student in your class decide what to put in the stew.
If you can, add instrument sounds to the rondo.

If your school does not celebrate Halloween, do the "Icky Stew" activity that follows.

Create a Rondo with "Icky Stew"

Have each student in your class decide what to put in the stew.

If you can, add instrument sounds to the rondo.

Echo so-mi Patterns

Echo so-mi patterns.

Have students sing their own so-mi patterns and have the class echo (if allowed to sing).
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Have students play so-mi patterns on a barred instrument and have students echo.

Learn to Sing "Old Mother Witch" or "Old Missus Fitch"

Learn to sing "Old Mother Witch" or "Old Missus Fitch". This song is a good reading song.

For non-Halloween schools, change the words to "Old Missus Fitch".

Review dynamics

Watch the video to review dynamics

Play the game "Old Mother Witch"

Formation: The students are lined up on one side of the gym. One student (or the teacher) is chosen to be the “witch” and is in the middle of the gym.

Directions:
The students sing the song.
The witch asks, “Are you my students?”
The students reply softly (piano), “No, we’re not!”
The witch asks, “Are you my students?”
The students reply in a louder (mezzo piano) voice, “No, we’re not!”
The witch asks, “Are you my students?”
The students reply in a loud (forte) voice, “Yes, we are!”

The students try to run past the witch to the other side of the gym without being tagged. When they are tagged they become “witches” also, and try to tag the rest of the students as they cross the gym. This game works best in the gym or outside between soccer goal posts. In a small room I restrict the witch to tagging only one student each time, and instruct the witch to tag a student who’s really trying to get away.

Name the solfa notes for "Old Mother Witch"

Sing "The Music Time Is Over"

Sing "The Music Time Is Over".