Halloween and Fall Interventions 2022

Planning fun seasonal interventions is one of the fun parts of my job. They aren't the everyday activities that the kids are used to in class, they have a twist to them. They have pumpkins, they have leaves, and monsters, and so much more!! These are the activities I created for Fall and Halloween.

Candle lights:

Goals: Counting, relaxation, fine motor movement, gross motor movement, shapes

At are facility, our music room has one thing that none of the other rooms have. the one thing our kids will absolutely remember after their first session. The Star Ceiling. A hundred LED lights that twinkle and shift between colors. While stars are always a great way to end a session I'm always looking for other songs or activities to incorporate the same idea of wonder and relaxation.

I went to my local $1.25 store (remember when it used to just be a dollar?) and I saw these little orange battery operated tea lights that came in packs of three. I went ahead and grabbed three packs of those so that we could have enough for each kid in a class to have one. These are great because the aren't too bright, the give off a soft orange glow and they flicker like real candles. Plus the base is orange so its a perfect color for fall.

I came up with three separate songs to use during halloween, those some of them could be used other times, and I bet there are still more songs to come up with.

1. Hand the lit candles to each child and then sing this piggy backed song of '5 little ducks'

'9 little candles went out in fright

on one cool halloween night

when the candles came back to sit

only 8 little candles were lit!'

Continue through the song until all the candles have gone out and then it will be time to pass them back in and either move on to the next activity or usually I wold have the kiddos line up at the door to leave.

2. Pass out the candles to each child and sing this piggy back to 'twinkle twinkle little star'

'Flicker flicker little light

how you make the darkness bright

giving off a soft faint flow

as you flicker flicker so

flicker flicker little light

how you make the darkness bright'

Then you can have kids hold their candles upside down as if they were the stars, or create/draw shapes in the dark like circles or triangles or squares.

3. Pass out the candles ad sing his piggy back to '1 little, 2 little, 3 little'

'one little, 2 little, 3 little candles

four little, five little, six little candles,

seven little, eight little, nine little candles

nine little candles shining bright ( or nine little candles on a halloween night)

You could have kids gently raise up their candle as you count the candles around the circle, or have them flick the lights on as their candle is counted.

Make A Monster:

Goals: Waiting turns, Identifying body parts, Matching, Imagination!

Ok these actually turned out so cute. I was inspired by a little monster poem I found on Pinterest called 'Cute Suit' that I put to a familiar tune. I drew these in the Procreate app on my Ipad. It took me about an hour or 2 to draw them all out. I made 4 'varieties of monster' but made it do each element was able to be mixed and matched between each other. Arms, Legs, heads, bodies, mouths and eyes. Then I cut out each piece, laminated it and stuck on velcro to stick the pieces to our felt bulletin board.

'Little monster looks so cute

in his fuzzy fury suit

should his fur be long and green

Messy? Curly? Short and Clean?

Should his fur be pink and blue?

What does he lok like to you?'

So I will sing through this with the tune of 'Bean song' or 'My dog lima' im not sure where the tune originates from but thats the old girl scout song I remember the tune from. I will sing through the whole first verse written above and then have a friend come and pick a body for the monster. Then I added other verses that sound like this:

Little monster looks so cute

in his fuzzy furry suit

Should his (Head, Arms, Legs) match him too?

What does he look like to you?

Depending on which body part you sing a child would choose the arms legs or head. You can also have them pick a mouth and eyes or have these preset on the head. Even though the song says "match" unless you are actually working on matching colors with the monster (Which is another wonderful way to use these monster pieces as a big puzzle) then they can pick whichever they want as long as its the correct body part you said. By the end you will have a suer cute unique monster creation!!

Eye-Ball Toss:

Goals: Gross motor movement, sensory, counting, waiting

This has a similar theme to make a monster but instead of a whole monster you are just putting eyes on the monster head. For this I found a pack of 12 eye ball ping pongs at the Dollar Tree, though you can completely get regular old ping pongs or even find colored ones. I put 5 smaller velcro circles on the sides and back of the ball leaving the eye side uncovered. Next you can line kids up in front of a felt board (with a taped out circle as a monster head) at a predetermined throw line and say this song (London Bridge).

'How many eyes do you have

do you have, do you have?

How many eyes do you have?

Mr. Monster Man

1-2-3....Throw!!

How many eyes can we see

lets count them all

count with me

we see _____ eyes

on our monster guy!'

Not all of the eye balls are likely to stick because kids either have bad aim or the ball hit on the non sticky side. Everybody will help count the eyes that did make it onto the monster face and then you can say that number. You can do this activity again and again because kids never tire of throwing things.

Pumpkins:

Goals: Motor movement, body part identification, direction following, color identification, Matching, Discrimination

I found some great little pumpkins in the Bullseyes playground section of target that were different sizes, colors, and textures. Most had a velvety fabric and one had cotton. I picked whatever tune was in my head at the time for this one. We shook/or waved the pumpkins up high, down low, on out feet, on our tummies, behind our backs Etc. Then to the tune of 'Have you ever seen a lassie' I sang:

'Have you ever seen a pumpkinx3

Have you ever seen a pumpkin

the color of _________'

Kiddos would then have to communicate if they had one the same color or not. We also asked questions discriminating the differences of pumpkins. I had pumpkins that were the same color and texture but the sizes were different. we also had pumpkins in similar sizes but with different colors. Kids would start to sing along after the first couple times when they caught on to the repetitious song! At the end I would ask if they had ever seen a pumpkin roll on the floor. And they would roll their pumpkins in to the leader/teacher/MT which is always their favorite part.

So far these are the interventions I have thought up for the Fall season. We had alot of others that are well known staples at our facility that were also used in sessions that were alot of fun. If anybody wants a PDF of the monster pieces I will have those available to download soon!!

Thanks, and have a happy Halloween!!