This Is Halloween

During the sound effects sections, your students can either use the suggested Halloween sounds or they can come up with their own ideas. In most cases, the sound effects can be performed by several students at once, but be sure that there aren't so many performers that the effect is lost. Ask for volunteers for the effects, making sure each child who wants to has a chance to perform.

As an option, you can have an "echo" of each Halloween word either sung by a few students, or played on recorders. Each echo would occur on beats 3 and 4 of its respective measure.

Another option would be to turn each Halloween word into a solo, giving each student a chance to sing at least one word. If shyness is a problem, try two or three students per word.

If the interval of E flat to E natural in bar 8 is too difficult for them to sing, they can shout the word "Halloween" instead.

Use this song for interdisciplinary study. Let the classroom teachers know that you have an activity which could help to reinforce the study of nouns and adjectives. You will note that the first verse is all nouns, the second is adjectives (except for the "Halloween" parts). Bring this to your students' attention. Discuss what nouns and adjectives are, and what the difference between them is. Perhaps the classroom teacher would like to join in on your session, or refer to your session in her classroom later.

You will note that the third and fourth verses have been left blank on the accompanied version and the reproducible lyric sheets. As a further exercise in creativity let your kids think up their own Halloween nouns to fill in verse three and Halloween adjectives to fill in verse four.

If you prefer, you can just repeat verses one and two instead of writing new lyrics, or you could add these lyrics (which you will hear on the complete performance side of the P/A cassette):

• verse 3 (nouns)
• Midnight! Vampires! Werewolves! Halloween!
• Thunder! Lightening!
• This is Halloween!
• verse 4 (adjectives)
• Haunted! Wicked! Ghoulish! Halloween!
• Bloody! Slimy!
• This is Halloween!

Whether you use these lyrics or your kids' own creative versions, have them write in the lyrics for verses three and four on the blank lines on their copies of the lyric sheet.

Even though the original lyrics are two syllables each, your students' own lyrics don't have to be. The idea is to get whatever the new word is to fit into beats one and two. (This could develop into a discussion of rhythms and variations.)

If you'd like to incorporate the concept of new lyrics, but your class hasn't learned about nouns and adjectives yet, you can refer to nouns as Halloween "things" or "creatures," and adjectives as Halloween "feelings."

If such discussions are below a given classes' level of study, simply have them write new lyrics for verses three and four, but don't make a big deal out of the reinforcement of nouns and adjectives. Consider it simply an exercise in creativity instead.

Movement

While we weren't actually thinking of this tune as a candidate for any movement activities, we discovered while recording it for the P/A cassette that the kids could not resist adding their own brand of Halloween-type moves. They basically moved up and down and side-to-side to the beat, throwing in their own particular variety of ghoulish gestures for each Halloween word. Whether you choose to use any movement or not is, of course, up to you. However, you may soon discover that your students have their own ideas about this one. If this is the case, by all means, encourage them.

Bulletin Board Idea

Contruct a large, black, leafless, tree. Be sure it has scraggly bare branches. (Make it yourself ahead of time, or get the kids to help.) You can copy the tree included here by either imitating it in a freehand style, or by tracing it onto a transparency and projecting it onto your bulletin board with an overhead projector and then tracing it there. Obviously, black is the best color for a spooky tree. (Don't use black for your background though. Gray or purple might be effective, if they're not too dark.)

Make copies of the pumpkins and bats included here and let your students cut them out. (Use white paper if you intend to let them color their creations, or go ahead and start with orange paper for the pumpkins and gray or brown for the bats.)

On the backs of the pumpkins, have them write the word "noun." On the front, have each student fill in a Halloween noun, taking care not to duplicate each other's ideas. On the backs of the bats, have them write the word "adjective," and on the front side, have them write an adjective suitable to the season. Let them color and/or customize their bats and pumpkins, making sure they don't cover up their words.

Clump all the pumpkins together at the base of the spooky tree, and attach the bats to the backdrop so that they appear to be flying around the tree. (If you prefer, you can "hang" the pumpkins and bats from the branches.) Tie it all together with the heading, "THIS IS HALLOWEEN," either printed directly on the board, or cut out and attached above the tree.

Note: If space is an issue on your bulletin board, you can divide your class in half, giving each half either nouns or adjectives.