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Favorite Fall Music Activities

 

 

Autumn time is fast approaching. Are you looking for some fall music activities? There are so many different ones you can use, and I’d like to share with you a few of my favorite autumn music lessons.

But, before I begin, I must clarify what I mean by autumn time, which is by far my favorite season of the year. I am talking about leaves changing, raking, scarecrows, hay rides, pumpkin picking – not apple season or halloween time. This is important, because I have way too many activities and songs that I try to include in lessons, that I must differentiate. LOL!

In this post, I am giving you some easy, little to no-prep activities that are favorites of my K-2nd grade classes every year. So, let’s get started.

 

Fall Music with Melodic Contour

Fall is the perfect time to  discuss pitch and melodic contour, and it fits so well into my yearly plans. So, one of my go-to autumn activities involves melodic direction and vocal practice. I love beginning with some vocal exploration to help them get their voices warmed up while they follow the movement of autumn leaves flying in the air.

Sometimes I will pass out leaf paper cut-outs for students to move to follow the contour they see. Then it’s also really fun to choose one student to create the exercise, moving their leaf slowly as the rest of the class follows with their voice.

Here are some other great vocal exploration videos and resources that I’ve used and are perfect for fall:

• Fall Leaves Vocal Exploration by Music with Mr. Reyna
• Leaf Vocal Exploration by Crafty Music Maker
• Autumn Leaves are Falling by Visual Music Minds
• Leaves: a guided xylophone activity to teach high and low by The Yellow Brick Road

 

Fall Songs

Secondly, let me share some of my favorite autumn songs. I use scarves with many of these. If you don’t have scarves, you can try several different alternatives. Maybe cut long strips of extra large construction paper. Or if you are able to find some inexpensive fabric that is flowing and lightweight, you can cut it up to use. You can even use scarves with the previous activity – vocal exploration –  to wave and move to match the melodic contour.

 

Well, one of my favorite songs for autumn music lessons is from the Music K-8 magazine, called “Orange, Yellow, Red.”  First, I play it once for students to listen and count the number of colors they hear – 6.

 

 

Then I use scarves matching those 6 colors (which also include gold, purple, and brown). I had most of the colors already in my classroom scarf collection, except for the gold. So I was able to find some other lightweight, fabric to cut into pieces.

Now, I play the song again, and use this scarf routine that I created:

         Color 1, color 2, color 3                      When color is heard, bring scarf straight up and down

         Autumn’s beauty…                             All wave scarves above head, right to left

         Autumn (autumn),                              1 side of room – scarves straight up/down (followed by other side on autumn echo – scarves straight up/down)

         Autumn (autumn),                              Same as above

         Color 1, color 2, color 3                     When color is heard, bring scarf straight up and down

 

After that, I play another fall song from Music K-8, “I Like the Colors of the Fall.” If you are familiar with either of these, you will know that they are 100% different – totally contrasting each other. That’s why I love using them together – to help students compare and contrast. During their first listen, I have them raise their hand or scarf every time they hear a color, and they soon discover that “there’s no such thing as yurple!” It’s a completely silly song, and the previous song was a more serious, mellow song. Then we listen again, trying to recognize what kinds of voices are in it – singing, speaking, shouting. 

My students get such a kick out of this funny song each year. However, I was shocked to hear that when I asked them to vote on their favorite between the two songs, a large majority voted for “Orange, Yellow, and Brown,” the more serious song. Interesting!

 

 

Here’s a more recent favorite fall activity of mine. You may be familiar with Mr. DelGaudio’s YouTube channel. Well, he has a wonderful song and instrument activity called “Autumn is Here.” For the last two years, I used this with grades K-3. This cumulative song has such a simple melody and instrumental part, yet it is so lovely and catchy! It is sure to get stuck in your head and your students! Mine even asked for this song in December!

 

 

 

Another favorite fall song music activity which works so well with instruments is the chant “Down, Down, Yellow and Brown.” With my Kindergarten and first graders, we first practice a steady beat and then determine instruments and their tone color, matching each word to a certain percussion instrument. Finally, we put it all together as a simple sound story. I ask students how they like the sound and if we should change any instruments, and we try it again. Also, with this chant, I add a short autumn children’s book to create an ABA composition, with “Down, Down” as the A section.

 

Fall Music & Movement

When young children need a movement break, I love teaching them the folk song, “Hop Old Squirrel.” Plus, I have a blast introducing them to my puppet friend. I bought this squirrel finger puppet, and it works great to show the motions, especially when you’re too tired to jump with them. 

Students learn the melody by rote, add hopping motions, and then come up with new action words to insert in the song. Sometimes I change the “eidle-dum” lyrics to be simpler and a good song for fall time. You can really add any phrase you wish to in that section.

         Hop, old squirrel, autumn is here now.

         Hop, old squirrel, winter comes soon.

 

You can find a free copy of this fall song for kids – just click here! My older students enjoy adding instruments to the song. This is what I use: Hop Old Squirrel Orff Arrangement. 

Finally, I consider any time of the year to be a perfect time to review rhythm with your students. With the fall season qualifying as any time, I use all different kinds of rhythmic activities and practice games.. With my youngest students in Kindergarten, who have not yet learned quarter and 8th notes yet, I love using pre-reading rhythm slides. They speak fall-themed words to a steady beat. This helps them determine the number of sounds on each beat and long and short sounds. 

You could also find lots of seasonal rhythm play along videos on YouTube. Here is one by Mrs. Miracle’s Music Room:

 

 

 

I really hope that some of my favorite fall music activities become your favorites too! Let me know if you use any of them in your classroom. My email is beth@bethsmusicclassroom.com, and I’m on Instagram @bethsmusicclassroom.