Are you looking for ways to get your elementary music students up and moving? Kids love to move and love to play these game songs! I'm sharing some of my favorite ideas for games in the elementary music room, using some of my favorite classroom folk songs!
It's a Fall Bundle! Woohoo! I included my new practice packs for We are Dancing in the Forest (aka The Wolf Song) and Let Us Chase the Squirrel. This set includes beat practice charts, staff reading slides and extra practice cards for using in centers.
Plus as a bonus, I added my Fall Vocal Exploration and my Not So Scary Fall Vocal Exploration. How cute is this scarecrow? My students love having visuals to go with their warm-ups - and I know having visuals helps my ELLs too - it's just plain best practice.
These vocal warm-up slides are super cute and not scary at all! Help the ghost find a place to land, get the jack-o-lantern to his scarecrow and help the bat find a piece of candy!
How do we play?
When we play this game, I have all the students except for one (the wolf) stand in a circle, acting out and singing the song.
After the song, everyone has to freeze and the wolf walks around trying to pick out people that are moving. My rules are simple: Repeat after me! You can blink. You can breathe. But don't argue with the wolf. Or you're out.
And then I have them whisper to their neighbors, "It's only 30 seconds."
Because when the wolf catches you, you sit in the "freezer" (you're tomorrow night's dinner!) and wait for the wolf to have 2 turns. As soon as the wolf picks a replacement wolf, they get to "sneak back into the forest" and play again, because there's a new wolf in town.
How long do I give the wolf to try to find dinner? I play Joshua Fought the Battle at Jericho on the piano - that's the wolf's theme song - and when the song is over we all say, "Shew!" and the game resumes.
I almost get tired of this song by the end of October, because even my 5th graders still request to play the game during their "free-choice reward days." Ha!
My second graders LOVE playing Let Us Chase the Squirrel! I love this song because it has so many musical elements we can pull out - re, half note, slurs, melodic contour - so much good stuff!
How do we play?
Game 1:
I have 2 different versions of the squirrel game that I like to play. The first is the easiest, but it gets wild. I have the students make a double circle, with the inside partner facing the outside partner.
Each set of partners connects hands above their head in a bridge/arch like London Bridge. I will tap one set of "squirrels" on the shoulder to begin the game. Those 2 will release hands and run around the circle, through the "tunnel" that's made with all the hands. When they get back to their spot, they connect hands again and become part of the tunnel for the other squirrels.
It's super simple and the kids think it's hilarious to run through the tunnel. Or scamper like squirrels, whichever you prefer.
Eventually, we rest our arms and I speed it up. When the 2 squirrels are about halfway around the circle, I tap on the next 2, so it's a continuous movement.
Pro Tip: Use a tambourine to signal the next set of squirrels so that they have to listen while they are singing.
Game 2:
This game is the best! If you've ever played 24 Robbers, it's a take off that game. I have students in partners spread out throughout the room and make a bridge with their partner (not making a tunnel this time). We call these students "trees" and then I pick 3 or 4 students to be the "squirrels" and scamper around (carefully! this gets fast!).
When the song is over, I tap the tambourine and they run for a tree. The "trees" can then "close" their arms by lowering them around the squirrel - there is only one squirrel per tree, so that tree is now closed. If there are more squirrels than trees (after the first round, pick more squirrels than trees), then we all say, "Aw! Poor squirrel" to the squirrels that didn't get to a home in time.
Then I hit the tambourine and we go again!
It's a riot and they will play this over and over again! After a few rounds, let the squirrels that have been caught in the tree select one of their tree people to take their place. This lets everyone get a chance to be a squirrel.
Pro tip: After playing this game a few times, change it up and hit the tambourine in the middle of a phrase or at least before the end of the song, so that they have to listen to know when to run for a tree.
More songs with fun games:
Button You Must Wander is a fun song for practicing half note and do pentatonic. My second graders love to pass the buttons around and guess who ends up with the button!
Down Came a Lady has an awesome game - whoever is in the middle of the circle picks a color - if you're wearing that color - you're "out" and walk around the outside of the circle. This is a great song to practice low so and half note!
Additional Songs for the Fall:
The Birch Tree is a beautiful song to teach; I'm hoping to do it as a warm-up round for my choir this year. That starts next week! Eek!
It does not have any game that I know of, but its striking melody will settle into your students' hearts. They request it, even though there's no game to play. (teacher win!)
Another beautiful song with a minor feel is Ah, Poor Bird. Ah, Poor Bird really lets their head voice shine. I love teaching this in the fall to my choir - and it's a perfect pairing with Hey Ho! Nobody Home.
Hey Ho! Nobody Home is a fantastic song to teach or practice singing in canon to older students. It has a nice strong macro beat that is helpful when singing with 5 or 6 or 7 parts in canon. And it's a powerful song for teaching dotted quarter eighth note as well.
What are your favorite game songs?
Do you have favorite songs that you like to teach in the fall?
Let’s Connect!
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