Our favorite season at Music For Kiddos is here... FALL! 🍂 (maybe it's your favorite season, too?)
Soon enough, the leaves will start changing colors, the temperatures will (finally!) start to drop a little bit, and I GET TO START SINGING MY FAVORITE SONGS OF THE YEAR. Woohoo!
Here are 6 fall resources for preschool and kindergarten music:
1. Pass The Pumpkin
Pass The Pumpkin is a song that I did not write and I know is very popular, especially in the music education world. It has a really nice, grounding melody that provides a lot of structure for this activity.
While you sing this song, kids pass a pumpkin around the circle. When the music stops and the pumpkin lands on a child, depending on the kids’ age, we do different things:
If they are in preschool, when the pumpkin lands on them, kids get to stand up and take a turn on a really cool instrument. For my classes, I would bring my gong (and this is actually one of the only times in the year that I bring out a very cool gong) . So, the pumpkin lands on their lap, they get up, they get to hit my gong and then they go back to their seat. We start again, if it lands on their lap and they've already had a turn, then we figure out who the next person is in the circle that hasn't had a turn until everybody gets a turn. That’s how simple I keep it for preschoolers.
For kindergartners, I will sometimes add another instrument. So, I'll start “a kid band” and maybe I'll have a shaker, a drum, a gong, and I pick three kids to start. If they have the shaker and the drum, they play along with the steady beat. If they have the gong, they have a very special, important job which is to only hit the gong one time and to listen very carefully for when the word “you” comes "(as in “will it stop on you?”). It's a lot about listening, waiting and impulse control because that gong is so fun to play! I usually give them a chance to practice at first so they know that they can play it well.
When the pumpkin lands on a child, then they get to go to one of the instruments so that all of the kids get turns on all three different instruments. Kids absolutely love it.
And I love this music activity because you can hold kids’ attention for quite a bit of time. I've only done this with up to third grade, but I've seen videos of other music teachers doing it with older elementary students with Orff instruments and arrangements. It is honestly one of the best things that I did in my music classes all year, just because of how engaged kids were!
*One thing I will caution you: The type of pumpkin that you bring for them to pass is really important. One time I brought a medium-sized real pumpkin that seemed light to me, but for preschoolers, it was really, really hard for them to pass it. So then I thought “well, I'll use a fake pumpkin” but the pumpkin I brought had sequins all over that shed all over the classrooms (oops!). I felt so bad and kept telling the teachers how sorry I was. And I brought a different pumpkin (a mini pumpkin) the following week.
2. Big Red Apple
by Stephanie Leavell
Big Red Apple is a song that up until recently, I’ve only shared with the members of the Music For Kiddos Community and a lot of them use it and the kids they work with love it, too. This finger play is really simple: you pretend like you're holding an apple in your hand and make these gestures:
Take a bite of the apple
Pretend you're slicing it
Pretend that you are turning it into a pie
Pretend that you're smashing it and turning it into apple sauce
Then, hold your hands out and offer the food that we created!
And of course, you could create all kinds of different verses like making muffins, squeezing it and making apple juice, basically, creating anything you wanted to out of your apple!
Here are the lyrics:
A big red apple, a big red apple
I take a bite and have a sample
Then I slice it, and slice it
And slice it, and slice it
And turn it into a pie
Big red apple, a big red apple
I take a bite and have a sample
I mash it, and mash it
And mash it, and mash it
And turn it into applesauce
3. Five Perfect Pumpkins
by Stephanie Leavell
Five Perfect Pumpkins is a song adaptation of Five Little Pumpkins that I wrote and it's very, very simple. If you want to see the exact gestures that I use, watch the video below! We also have an animated video, which you can find here.
Anytime you get the opportunity to use funny words like “SPLAT”, kids just love it! Their eyes light up, and that is my favorite thing ever.
*Download the chords/lyrics and notated leadsheet at the bottom of this page (Fall Songs For Kids)
4. Blowing In The Wind
by Stephanie Leavell
Blowing In The Wind is a scarf song. You grab your scarf and blow it around in the wind. In the B section, kids make a tiny ball with the scarf and hide it in between their hands. “Ready, set, throw” and they get to throw their scarves up! See this song in action with Kathy Schumacher of Tuneful Teaching here.
I actually had somebody write to me and said that they were going to use this song for a concert this fall! They were going to use white scarves and say their “ghost was blowing in the wind.” Such a really cool idea!
*Download the chords/lyrics and notated leadsheet at the bottom of this page (Fall Songs For Kids)
5. Cinnamon Rolls
by Stephanie Leavell
Only the Music For Kiddos Community knows this song, but it's really, really fun! It's called Cinnamon Rolls and the best part of this song is definitely the rolling that you do with your arms, which is really good for bilateral movement, and coordinating both sides of your body.
Kids think this is just a fun song but the side to side movement when we “roll the cinnamon roll”, encourages crossing the midline, which is vital to childhood development. The hand movements in this song also encourage both sides of the brain to communicate.
Here are the lyrics:
Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls
Rolls and rolls of cinnamon rolls
Let’s eat, let’s eat
(repeat the theme)
Swirly, whirly and sweet
It’s the perfect night time treat (or day time)
Swirly, whirly and fun
You better eat one before they’re gone
Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls
Rolls and rolls of cinnamon rolls
Let’s eat, let’s eat
(repeat the theme)
6. Fall Songs For Kids (free download)
Want more songs and resources? In celebration of fall, I’m sharing with you my educational album, Fall Songs For Kids that you can find on all streaming platforms:
🍁 Falling Leaf
🍁 Five Perfect Pumpkins
🍁 Blowing In The Wind
🍁 Shy Little Monster
🍁 Bitty Bitty Bat
🍁 I Love Halloween
🍁 Swirly Whirly Scarves
