Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Halloween Sound Stories


Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year because there are so many fun and engaging activities we can do in music!  One of my favorite lessons is using Halloween poems to create spooky sound stories.  A sound story is using instruments or various objects to add sound effects to a story, poem, or book. 

In Second grade classes, we started by learning a Halloween poem together as a class.  Once we read through it a few times, we decided which words needed a sound effect.  They discovered that important words and onomatopoeias were great choices.
 

 
Next, I showed the students a collection of sound effects instruments and the students chose appropriate sounds for the words that they had circled. 



Then, the students performed the poem collaboratively using the instruments. 
 
The students then got into small groups and began working on their own Halloween sound story.  The groups followed the same steps that we had followed together as a class.
 
 
The groups received a bucket full of classroom percussion instruments that they used to create their sound effects.  It was so neat to watch each group's creative process! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Each group performed their sound stories for the class.
 
 
  
 
 
 They definitely got me into the spooky Halloween spirit!! ツ
 

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this a couple of years ago. I used to do a Halloween Sound Story with my students, but I lost my story when transitioning from one school to another. I found this post while doing a Google search today, and it's been very helpful in recreating a sound story.

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    1. Thank you! So glad it was helpful. :) Thanks for reading!

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  2. When students go into their small groups do they each perform a different poem?

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    1. Yes. We do one together as a class and then each group gets a different poem to work on. That way each group is presenting something different to the class. :)

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    2. What poems do you use for the sound stories?

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    3. I just did a quick google search - you'll find a bunch of stuff there! Also - pinterest. :)

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  3. Hi. Great idea. Will use with my JP classes. I am a Performing Arts teacher in South Australia.

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