Saturday was my yearly Halloween Piano Festival. It’s my most favorite performance of the year!
I love fall! It is my favorite time of year. The weather starts to cool down (still waiting on that one since it reached 94 yesterday- but at least we are out of the triple digits!) and we kick off some fun performance opportunities for the year!
I love to dress up too and this year since I had a Hollywood theme going on, I decided to dress up as one of my favorite old hollywood actresses, Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo in “I Love Lucy!” I knew I would have to explain to my students who I was, but I also had a parent that never heard of I Love Lucy, so if you haven’t either, be sure to look it up on YouTube.
Here is my transformation to Lucy Ricardo. My daughter was my wonderful make-up artist!
During Halloween Festival I like to do some kind of game in between the performances. Last year we did a Halloween Trivia game (you can see the post about it here). You can download the trivia questions for free and use it however you like here.
This year I did one of my favorite halloween pass along poems that I found many years ago. In past years I have also done the “Right” and “Left” storylines. I begin with a prize of some kind when the story begins. Each time the word “left” is said, the item is passed from the person holding it to his/her left. Same for the word “right.”. I’ve also added “up” and “down” or “forward” and “backward” so I can make sure it goes to different rows. When the story ends, the person holding the prize gets to keep it.
Did I mention I love Halloween? There is so many spooktacular things that we can do in October! I thought I would share some of my favorites that I like to do with my students. (These are all available in my MER store or TpT store.) And then I’ll share a little more on Halloween Festival, plus a little surprise too! 😉
First let’s start off with a fun and easy rhythm game- Boo! This one is a smashing hit with my students. It’s quick and easy. Prep is a snap! You can watch how it is played here.
COMPOSITION ACTIVITIES
Doing composition activities during lab station time is my favorite! I love using composition games especially, like Witches’ Brew…
Here is another composition activity, Creative Story Composition: Trick or Treat.
Creative Story Music Compositions |Trick or Treat! | Reproducible
GROUP ACTIVITIES
Here is another Trick or Treat game that is perfect to use for a group activity! Trick or Treat is a hot potato style game where students can earn treats or perform musical tricks.
Another really fun game to use with a group is the Halloween Body Beat Rhythm Game! Watch the video to see what a FaBOOlous time students have!
Combine this group activity with a composition activity! Halloween Rhythm the Room Scavenger Hunt is a student and teacher favorite!
REVIEW MUSICAL CONCEPTS
A couple more games to review musical concepts is Web-Mathsters and Spider Scales Puzzle.
Don’t Eat Frank has become a BIG student favorite. My students start asking when we were going to play it back in September.
If you need a relaxing coloring activity where you can easily assess students knowledge, then you may like the Music Coloring Sheets for Halloween.
Color by Music | Reproducible Music Coloring Sheets | Halloween
Feed the Monster is perfect for beginners. It is a great way to review basic rhythms or keyboard intervals. Feed the Monster really could be played anytime of the year!
Feed the Monster | Keyboard Intervals and Rhythm BUNDLE | Music Game
And let’s not forget some Spooktacular music students can play at Halloween Festival or group! These are some beginner Halloween originals you are welcome to use! If you have your students learn them, I would love to hear their performance!
And of course I can’t finish this post without sharing some pictures from 2016 Halloween Festival!
Have a SPOOKTACULAR halloween! Do you hold a Halloween recital or event? Play games, compose Halloween pieces? Have a favorite activity during fall? I would love to hear what fun things you have planned this year!
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What a fun idea!! Love your costume!!
Thanks Anne! 🙂