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
