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Get ready for some spooky fun using these 10 Halloween music and movement activities for preschool and elementary music class. These activities focus on singing, scarf movement and brain breaks. The activities are for young children ages 4-10.
This is going to be a big hit with your PREK through 3rd grade classes. It’s called “We’re Going on a Monster Hunt.”
A fun way to use this activity in a music classroom is to use scarves with the activity.
In the story there are three different actions, and for those actions, you’re going to choose a different scarf movement.
You can have the kids bounce as they are singing “We’re going on a monster hunt. I’ve got my binoculars. I’m not scared.”
And then they’re going to go through the journey to the three different places in order to get to the haunted house.
And then they will be in the haunted house and when they see the monster, they can hold the scarf up high in front of their faces and then slowly drop it down as the monster appears and shows his ears, eyes, nose, teeth.
And then when they run away, you can just have them spin and run in space.
I like to tell them what the actions are before we do it with the scarves.
And then I’ll ask them to make up some moves for those scarf action. I encourage them to make big movements.
So, we want to get them going across the body, or we can go high to low across the body.
You can have them switch hands across the body.
You can have them zig zag across the body, swirl and wave across the body.
Whatever the actions are, you can, you know, have them do the job or the stomp or the crawl or whatever it is with their scarf.
And at the very end of the story when they slam the door, you can have them toss their scarf in the air and drop it to the ground and then they must fall down with their scarf and be really quiet.
So that is one fun activity you can do during the month of October, during the scariest time of the year in the classroom.
The next activity is to do a scarf movement on the Sing Play Create YouTube channel. It’s a fun Halloween movement activity with spooky music too.
HALLOWEEN SCARF MOVEMENT TPT STORE LINK
You might be playing some kind of game in your music classroom for the month of Halloween, like Pass the Pumpkin, or you might be doing an activity using the Peer Gynt suite where they’re playing the beat and going fast and slow and loud and soft on the beat, and then it might be time for a brain break.
I like to review the actions first and then have the students do the activity.
Either way, this Halloween freeze dance will help them get rid of the wiggles.
Halloween Freeze Dance, Brain Break Movement Activity TPT STORE LINK
And then it would be a great time to pull them over and read a Halloween story. Or you can sing a song like Stirring My Brew.
A fun movement song for preschool and kindergarten.
Halloween Song “Stirring My Brew” Movement Activity, Brain Break, with hand Actions In the video the children learn the song and then the children learn how to do scarf movement to the music too.
It’s 2 activities in 1! A classic Halloween favorite. “Stirring My Brew” done in a new way!
There Was an Old Lady All Skin and Bones
There Was an Old Witch Who Stirred Her Brew
The Ghosts are Coming Out to Play
The next activity is a complete music lesson. Halloween Chant “The Five Little Pumpkins”. But I changed the words to be specific to be about music.
And the great thing about this video is you can pull it up and use it as a complete lesson.
Then you can combine this activity with a scarf or a freeze activity or one of the other activities that I’m going to share with you here for a complete music lesson.
The next activity is a movement break. “Do the Skeleton Dance”.
We are going to be skeletons and really get everything loose.
And if you’re working with the like the pre-K and kinders, it’s a good idea to go through the body parts with them before you do the song.
So we’re going to say we’re going to wiggle our head, and we’re going to wiggle our neck, and we’re going to wiggle our shoulders.
And you can have them say the words back to you nice and slowly, give it a try and move on to their elbows and their wrists and their fingers and even their thumbs.
Basically, you can do a nice little wiggle on each part of the body before you do the skeleton dance.
And then when they do the song, they’re going to feel a little more comfortable moving all those different parts of their body. And we’ve helped our little ones learn about their body.
It also helps them with their space because we’re going to say we’re going to keep all our wiggly bones in our personal space while we do the skeleton debt.
And then I like to do a quieter activity after we do something like that. So then they can sit down and we might want to get out the drums and play the beat to a song or sing a song or read a story.
A movement activity is a nice segway to something that’s sitting down or more quiet.
“Do the Skeleton Dance” TPT LINK
The next activity is another Halloween movement song. So all my tips about skeleton dance work for this.
It’s called Halloween Dance. “Halloween Dance”.
So, what I like to do is I will just put it on and have them move freely.
Just let them go for it.
Then we can sit down and I can pause the video and teach them each action. And you know, if you haven’t had time to prep, this is an easy way to just do it with them.
Do it with your first class, then you’ll know it.
So put the video link and a Google slides with all your Halloween music activities and then you can pull that video up, have the kids do the song any time you need a movement break.
And then what you can do is pause the video for each action and have them show you the action. Make it interactive.
So that’s a fun way to learn an action song. We are also teaching them sequencing. You’re teaching them to look and listen and they’re getting a great movement break out of it.
I like my students to sing at the beginning of class, whether it’s a vocal warm up or we’re singing a special song of the month, especially with my pre-K through second graders.
I really like them to have a special song that they’re singing.
You know, they only get music once a week or so, and I just want them to use that singing voice as much as we can.
Halloween Music Bundle of Songs, Activities, Actions, TPT STORE LINK
“Halloween is Coming Soon” TPT LINK
I always have a little song that we’re working on. And again, I insert the link to the YouTube video to these songs. I put them in my lesson plan for the October month for my kindergarten classes, and this is going to be their song.
Or I might have two different songs that they’re working on as well as their vocal explorations, and that’s our warmup to class.
There are many songs to choose from on the Sing Play Create Kids Music YouTube channel.
The way I introduce the song to them is I just play the video and I say just, you know, move freely to the music. How does the music make you feel? And then I have them sit down and I’ll either, you know, echo clap the rhythms, or I’ll sing and have them echo sing it back to me.
It depends how much time I have and how deep I want to go.
You can even use the video to do that. You can play the video and pause and have them echo sing back to you.
That is a great way to save your voice. You don’t have to do all the singing in the classroom. Let your students use their voices.
Once they’ve learned the words, then we can sing the whole song through.
Another fun thing you can do with these songs and put all of them together for a little Halloween program.
After my students know the song, if I’m teaching it to second and third grade, then what I do is I have them break into small groups and I have them come up with the actions for the song.
Especially in third grade, I have found they really like to do this.
They either like to make it into a story or they want to do the actions, or they want to get the scarves.
I let them do that probably on the third class time is that by that time they will know the song and they’ll
know the things I’ve taught them through the song, and then they can go and create on their own.
LYRICS VERSE 1:
There was an old witch stirred her brew for the monsters, bats and ghosts and the rest of her crew.
She looked high and low. She looked left and right so she could stir her brew on Halloween night.
What will she do if she can’t make the brew?
No. Halloween? BOO HOO!
Oh, there’s nothing that old witch won’t do to make Halloween come for me and you.
This song is a cumulative song like “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”. It’s a fun activity song that can be sung in any classroom, and at home.
If you’re using it in the music room, you can use the FREE RESOURCE that has movement and instrument activities.
Students will enjoy playing along as they sing the song and trying to keep up with the correct order of instruments.
The last idea is if you’re looking for some spooky music and Halloween songs for your upper elementary to sing. I have a set of songs that are on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon music.
You’ll find them everywhere and you can use those songs for your upper grades for rhythm play alongs, pass the bean bag, hot potato, and background music.
ROCKIN’ GHOSTIE INSTRUMENTAL TRACK
I FEEL LIKE I’M DANCING INSTRUMENTAL TRACK
THUMPIN HALLOWEEN INSTRUMENTAL TRACK
THE LONELY GHOST INSTRUMENTAL TRACK
DREAMIN’ OF CANDY INSTRUMENTAL TRACK
They are also available in the SING PLAY CREATE TPT store and on the website.
HALLOWEEN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC TRACKS TPT STORE LINK
I’m hoping these Halloween music and movement activities are spooky good fun for you and your music classes this Halloween.
Thanks for reading!
Let’s Move and Learn with Music!
Hi there! I’m Sandra, one of the authors behind Sing Play Create. My goal is to provide teachers with interactive resources and activities to improve the effectiveness of their teaching and enhance student learning.
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