Lesson #3: Getting Ready for HALLOWEEN!

This lesson was super fun to teach! Today one of my objectives was to reinforce the sounds of the

letters "p," "j," and "l." "I'm a Pumpkin," a cute and catchy song about...well...pumpkins... accomplished this objective perfectly. I've included the music and actions in the picture below. I love this song to use for kindergarten kids because the melody is fun, the words are fun, and for the theme of Halloween they get to learn how jack-o-lanterns are make from pumpkins! And the focus words "pumpkin" and "jack-o-lantern" reinforced the sounds of the letters the students have been learning!

Anybody who teaches kindergarten, or any elementary grade, know that to teach effectively at all, you've got to "sell" your lesson agenda, just as a businessman may present an idea in a catchy, attractive manner to appeal to his or her clients. Selling a lesson to kindergartners is much more fun, though, let me attest to that fact! I began to whet their appetites for learning (after singing our ritual Hello Song) by starting with, "I hear you have been learning the sounds of the letter 'p.' That is so great! I heard you practicing it when I came in today and you sound so smart. What are some words that start with the letter 'p'?" to which responded dozens of hands shooting up in the air. I received many creative answers, including "panda!" I would've never guessed that word as a kindergartner. "Those are all awesome words, but I'm thinking of a very special word. It's something you see a lot at this time of year, during fall...that's orange...and there's one on the table..." each clue made each child more eager to answer my riddle. At my invitation, they all exclaimed, "PUMPKIN!" Now the product was sold, and I dived straight into singing "I'm a Pumpkin" with the accompanying actions (the song and activity are depicted to the right). The melody was catchy and fun, and they loved the clicking part when we made the eyes, nose, and mouth of the jack-o-lantern. They loved this song so much that even after having done it a couple of times, they requested to do it again at the end of the lesson! I love these kids.


After we learned and performed "I'm a Pumpkin" at our very best, I asked what very special day was coming up, and the children all knew about Halloween, so we were now ready to read the story called "The Little Old Lady who was Not Afraid of Anything." My objective with reading this book was to make a literature connection with music, in this case sound effects. Throughout the book there are certain sounds of things the Little Old Lady comes across in the dark woods, and the children were able to produce the different sounds each item made. The two shoes went, "clomp, clomp," the pair of

pants went "wiggle, wiggle," the shirt went "shake, shake," the pair of gloves went "clap, clap," the tall black hat went "nod, nod," and the very scary pumpkin was last, and it went "BOO, BOO!" (Every time the kids exclaimed that part, which was probably their favorite, I gave a huge startle in my chair so they would deliver just that way to "scare" me every time. :) ) The children were super engaged in the story, and it didn't surprise me that when I asked them to recall the order of the items in the forest back to me they remembered so perfectly! I displayed colorful, laminated cards (shout out to Dr. Brittany May for these beautiful props) for each one they said came next, wielding a picture of the item and the written form of the sound it made, until the scarecrow was formed. They loved it!

Now the goal with this story is that next week, the children will be able to respond to each corresponding part of the scarecrow on instruments. They had no problem retaining the understanding of the literature, and they were naturals at producing the appropriate sounds...now the adventure of adding instruments begins!