No doubts about it — fall is my favorite season to be an early childhood music teacher and music therapist. I love the themes: bats, monsters, spiders, leaves, pumpkins, apples, candy… the possibilities are endless!

To celebrate the release of my Halloween children’s book, The Shy Little Monster, as an interactive flip book here at F-flat Books, I’m sharing 4 fun and engaging fall songs you can include in your early childhood music classes this fall. I’ll share 2 movement songs, a song inspired by the nursery rhyme 5 little pumpkins and more about The Shy Little Monster song and interactive flip book. Let’s get started!

1. Five Perfect Pumpkins

Five Perfect Pumpkins is my take on the popular nursery rhyme 5 little pumpkins. It is a fun, catchy, and easy-to-learn song that your students and clients will love. It’s about (you guessed it 😉) 5 pumpkins in a pumpkin patch… who one by one go rolling and go… SPLAT! 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

“SPLAT” is pretty much my favorite word to write into a children’s song. 😆

 

Movement songs are my favorite type of songs and one of my favorite ways to engage kids in my early childhood music groups. The right movement song can give children an opportunity to regulate their sensory systems so they’re better prepared for learning, listening, and engaging with their peers. Next, I’m sharing with you two movement songs you can add to your music lesson plans this fall season.

2. Bitty Bitty Bat

First is “Bitty Bitty Bat”, which is one of my active movement songs and MAJOR favorite song of kids, music teachers and music therapists alike. 

Kids can have fun moving and pretending they’re an itty bitty bat, a great big bat, a bouncing bat and a variety of other “b” action words. As the song goes on, kids can go back and forth between flying with BIG wings and being a bitty bitty bat with little wings.

This fall and halloween song is great for teaching or reinforcing the social emotional learning (SEL) skill of self-regulation by using the music therapy concept of the ISO-principle by letting kids “get their wiggles out” first, and ending with stretching and breathing, like a calm-down movement song would. Once we’ve shaken our sillies out, the classroom has slowed-down and everyone is taking their deep breaths in and out (like a “breathing bat”), I might follow Bitty Bitty Bat with my song “Breathe” as a calm-down song to encourage more breathing.

3. Falling Leaf

The second movement song I’m sharing with you that will be a great addition to your music lesson plans this time of year is “Falling Leaf.” “Falling Leaf” is a movement song where the kids get to pretend that they are leaves. They fall down and when the wind comes back, they’re taken back up in the air…just like leaves! Kids float, they spin, twirl and do all sorts of fun movements while they are a falling leaf. Then, in the middle section of the song, they take a little rest because the wind calms down…and then they start up again!

4. Shy Little Monster Book

Lastly, I’m sharing my most popular children’s song, turned book, the Shy Little Monster is the music-book I wrote & self-published about 5 years ago, and illustrated by Sarah Pilar Echeverria. This (not scary!) Halloween story is a charming and beautifully illustrated Halloween

book that celebrates silliness, friendship, and shows kids that hard things can be made just a little bit easier with the help of your (adorable monster) friends.

 

The song and book are about a shy little monster who dresses up like a lobster, and his monster friends that also dress up in adorable costumes. The shy little monster needs help finding his voice.

 

This book explores: 

  • Friendship
  • Having confidence in yourself (self-esteem) 
  • The importance of asking for help 
  • Doing new things or things that feel scary to us
  • Self-Management (from SEL framework) & having an opportunity to talk about taking initiative and using coping skills (like taking deep breaths)
  • Empathy (the monster friends showed care about the feelings of the Shy Little Monster)

Some of the musical concepts that can be explored or addressed with this book include:

  • Loud and soft (voice volume, dynamics)
  • Steady Beat
  • Fast and Slow

Kinds of voices/vocal timbres (speaking, singing, whispering, calling)

 

The Shy Little Monster also shows kids that it’s okay to be shy (like me and like Sarah, the illustrator!), and, most importantly, that good friends are always there to offer some encouragement and help you find your voice.

This read-along will give kids the opportunity to sing along with the book and explore the (sometimes hidden!) interactive elements your student (if you are a music educator) or clients (if you are a music therapist) can engage with virtually.

The Shy Little Monster interactive flip book is available on FRIDAY, October 14th at F-flat Books!

Connect with Stephanie @ Music For Kiddos!

Instagram: @Music_For_Kiddos 

Facebook @MusicForKiddos

Website: www.musicforkiddos.com