It's that time of year again! Are you looking for pumpkin-themed songs, chants, and fingerplays to use with your preschool and kindergarten students?
In this post, I share some of my favorites to celebrate the change of season and Halloween.
Plus, I provide tips for using this musical material in your classroom. Let's roll!
Pumpkin, Pumpkin Chant by Jane Willis Johnston
This playful fingerplay by Jane Willis Johnston (blog linked here with words and actions) is a fun way to bring in the season and have students identify rhyming words.
Jbrary demonstrates the actions by patting knees and then clapping hands on the words "pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin." The "pat pat, clap, clap, pat pat" repeats throughout the rhyme. This would be a fun attention getter before story time!
Pumpkin, Pumpkin Round and Fat
What happens when you carve a pumpkin? It turns into a jack o' lantern! This song is a great way to get into the spirit of the season and children love making their own jack o'lantern faces! Here are my favorite ways to explore this chant.
Pumpkin Patch: Introduce the song by pretending to go to the pumpkin patch. (I use big pumpkin cut outs). Sing the song for the students and turn the pumpkin around on "just like that" to show the jack o' lantern surprise (i.e. happy, sad, angry, sleepy, silly faces).
Pumpkin Conductor: Use a paper pumpkin on a stick to “conduct” the song. Show the pumpkin side to the students while singing the song. On “just like that”, turn it around, and have the students make their own jack o’ lantern face.
Pumpkin Partners: Students sit back to back with a partner. Sing the song and turn around on “just like that” to reveal their jack o’ lantern face.
Pumpkin Beat: Point to the pumpkin pictures while singing the song. Great steady beat practice!
Five Little Pumpkins
Five Little Pumpkins is a popular rhyme and fingerplay perfect for this time of year. Children practice counting, sequencing, and expressive voice. Say it as an entire class or let the students say each pumpkin as a solo part. Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino is a great book to add to your collection!
Five Perfect Pumpkins by Stephanie Leavell
This is a great song and fingerplay to use at Halloween or anytime throughout the fall. It's so fun to practice the alliteration of "perfect pumpkins in a pumpkin patch" and who can resist the "splat" at the end?!?
Pumpkin Twist by Ben Brown
I discovered this fun movement activity on Moriah Holmes' "Move it Monday" Instagram series.
The Pumpkin Twist by Ben Brown is a no prep, high energy movement song perfect for this season. The lyrics tell you what to do, so there's no guess work!
Do the pumpkin twist, make a jack o'lantern face, hop around the room, howl at the moon, hop to the left, hop to the right, flap your arms, fly like a bat, and stomp like Frankenstein!
Your littles will love it!
I hope you found these ideas for using pumpkin-themed songs, chants, and fingerplays in your classroom. If you enjoyed these recommendations, check out Halloween-Themed Ideas for Kindergarten Music for more fun ideas!
And, if you’re looking for more playful inspiration, sign up for the Pop Up for Play Newsletter or email me at tina@popupforplay.com.
What pumpkin-themed song, chant, or fingerplay will you use with your students? I can't wait to hear about it!
Have a great week!
