Teach the song by rote. If you wish to use notation, you can use the video that we've posted on YouTube:
Form a circle. Choose one child to go into the middle.
Have the children in the circle face away from the child in the middle. They walk around the circle as they sing. They clap on “just like that.” All the children jump around to face the child in the middle, and make the scariest faces they can. The child in the middle (or teacher) chooses the scariest face to be the next one in the middle. You can speed up the game by having more than one child in the middle at the same time.
Some kindergarten classes find it difficult to walk in a circle around the child in the middle. Instead of walking around the circle, have them form the circle, and turn away from the child in the middle and stand in place. Then, have them raise and lower their arms to show the high and low sounds as they sing the song. At the end of the song, they jump around and make the scary face. Raising and lowering arms as they sing will help to reinforce the concept of higher and lower sounds. After you’ve played the game many times, show the students the song using iconic notation, and have them point to the higher and lower sounds. If the teacher tracks the “notes”, the students will be seeing that music is read from left to right, and they will see how the “notes” go higher and lower. Create a “pointing page” for the students. Give each student or pair of students a “pointing page” that shows the higher and lower sounds, and shows the rhythm using pumpkin icons and have the children point to the icons as they sing.
If you play the game in a second class, you could have them clap the words of the song as they sing instead of raising and lowering arms. This will help to reinforce that rhythm in music is “the way that the words go.” When you transfer this to the “pointing page” they will see visually what the rhythm looks like. To assess if children know which are the higher and lower sounds, have them show you the higher and lower sounds with arm motions, with their eyes closed.
Language Arts: Have the students read the words of the song on the “pointing page.” If the students have sung the song many times as part of the game, they will know the lyrics, and may be successful in reading the words. Even if they are not reading, they will be tracking from left to right and this will be good preparation for reading. Give the students the “pointing page” to take home to read to their parents.
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