Last week we looked at 21 songs for Autumn and Halloween, and this week we’re diving a little deeper into the 5 Little Pumpkins song! We have come up with several music activities that go right along with the song as well as a craft, snack, and DIY pumpkin instrument! Hope you enjoy Five Little Pumpkins!
Use these printables for these activities.
5 Little Pumpkins Unit Study (PDF File)
Music Activity #1:
Print five pumpkins using our free printable. Draw some lines on your board for a gate and place the pumpkins on it. On the back of each pumpkin, write a different musical challenge for the students to complete. For example:
Pumpkin #1: Sing the Five Little Pumpkins song
Pumpkin #2: Play Five Little Pumpkins on bells or piano
Pumpkin #3: Hand sign Five Little Pumpkins
Pumpkin #4: Keep beat on drum while class sings Five Little Pumpkins
Pumpkin #5: March around the room while keeping a steady beat to Five Little Pumpkins
Music Activity #2:
Five Little Pumpkins is a fairly easy song to play because it simply goes down the scale and back up again! For this activity, attach 8 pumpkins (solfege colors) on a gate to your board. Then, decide which way you want to play! Here are a few examples:
1. Have one child point to the correct note (pumpkin) with a pointer while everyone sings the song.
2. Have one child point to the correct pumpkin when teacher calls out note name
3. Have one child point to correct pumpkin when teacher demonstrates a hand sign
Music Activity #3:
Act out the story with large pumpkin visuals while singing the song! Just use our free printable to print 5 large pumpkins. Then, choose one student to be the witch. Not comfortable with witches? That’s okay! You can change it from “there are witches in the air” to “there are leaves in the air”. Then, pick students to pretend to be leaves flying through the air! You can even have a few children to “roll out of sight” just like the ones in the song!
Music Activity #4:
Five little pumpkins is a great song to pull out those rhythm band instruments! Have your class sit in a circle and then pass out instruments to each child Assign one child to start the beginning of the song. Then, sing the song as you go in order around the circle allowing children to play their instrument for the different sound effects!
Music Activity #5:
This game will have your class in smiles and laughter just from hearing the silly poem!
“Pumpkin, pumpkin, round and fat
Can you guess what note is that?”
Recite the poem and then throw a pumpkin (mini pumpkin with stem cut off, orange ball, etc.) to a student. Start playing the Five Little Pumpkins song and then stop the song at a particular spot. The student has to tell what note name it is that the song stopped on. This may be a little more challenging so feel free to display the solfege pumpkins from activity #2 to give them a little help.
Music Activity #6:
Using our printable, make five little pumpkins attached to toilet paper rolls. Tape the pumpkins to the back of the rolls so the hole of the roll is accessible. Next, write a different musical symbol on the front of each roll (quarter note, half note, whole note, etc.) Provide a small basket full of slips of paper that have the same musical symbols on them. The objective is for students to pick a symbol from the basket and then match it up to the correct pumpkin. Once they find it, they will drop the paper inside the toilet paper roll!
You can also make 8 solfege colored pumpkins sitting on the gate instead of five. Again, attach the pumpkins to the back so the hole is accessible. Place several pumpkin candies, pom poms, or other objects in a bowl to the side. Call out a note name and have students drop a candy pumpkin or pom pom into the correct toilet paper roll!
Snack
Put together this adorable pumpkin snack bag for each child in your class!
DIY Pumpkin Instrument
Add a little noise and creativity to your music classroom by putting together these pumpkin egg shakers! Then, use them as you sing the Five Little Pumpkins song!
Craft
If you have some extra time, have your students construct this Five Little Pumpkins scene! Then, sing the song once everyone’s craft is complete!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this Five Little Pumpkins unit study, and, as always, happy musicing!