10 Fall Music Lesson Ideas for Elementary Teachers

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Fall brings fresh energy into the music room – cooler weather, colorful leaves, pumpkins, and plenty of opportunities to make learning musical concepts festive and fun.

Whether you’re short on prep time or looking to add variety to your October lesson plans, these 10 fall music lesson ideas for elementary teachers are designed to be easy to implement, adaptable across grade levels, and engaging for your students.

These lessons cover rhythm, solfege, listening skills, and movement activities, while keeping the seasonal spirit alive. Many can also double as substitute plans or center activities, giving you flexibility when you need it most.

1. Pumpkin Patch Rhythms

Pumpkins are a fall classic – and they make perfect rhythm tools.

Write rhythm patterns inside pumpkin cutouts (or draw them on the board).

Each pumpkin becomes a challenge for students to clap, step, or play on instruments.

Learning Goal: Reinforce rhythmic decoding and performance.

How to Teach:

Spread pumpkin rhythm cards around the room or place them in a “pumpkin patch” basket.
Call on students to pick one pumpkin and lead the class in performing it.
For variety, divide the class into groups, assigning each group a pumpkin pattern. Play them together to form layered rhythms.

Variations:

Younger students: focus on quarter and eighth notes.
Older students: add rests, syncopation, or dotted rhythms.

Extension: Have students create their own pumpkin rhythm cards and line them up in sequence to build a full-class rhythm composition.

2. Leaf Falling Solfege

Turn autumn leaves into a solfege game that gets students moving, listening, and/or singing.

Cut paper leaves from construction paper and write different solfege patterns on each one (e.g., sol–mi, do–mi–sol, la–ti–do).

When the music stops, students grab a leaf and perform the pattern.

Learning Goal: Strengthen pitch recognition, ear training, and singing accuracy.

How to Teach:

Play a piece of seasonal music (e.g., Vivaldi’s Autumn or a lively folk dance). While it plays, students walk around the room.
When the music stops, students quickly pick up one leaf and hold it.
Choose how to run the performance round:
- Quick version: Select 1–2 leaves to spotlight, and have the whole class sing those patterns together.
- Focused version: Choose 4–5 students to sing their leaf patterns individually, with the class echoing each one. Rotate so everyone gets a turn in later rounds.
Start the music again and repeat, giving students new chances with different leaves.

Variations:

Younger grades: stick with sol–mi or sol–mi–la patterns.
Upper grades: include full pentatonic or diatonic scale patterns, minor mode, or rhythms written in solfege.

Extensions:

Students notate their leaf pattern on the staff after singing.
Combine several leaves into a short class melody and perform it on Orff instruments or boomwhackers.
Use the activity as a center station, where pairs take turns singing and echoing each other’s leaves.

3. Autumn Soundscape Composition

Students create a class soundscape inspired by the fall season. Brainstorm autumn sounds: rustling leaves, rain, owls, crunching footsteps. Assign each sound to a classroom instrument or body percussion.

Learning Goal: Explore timbre, layering, and creative composition.

How to Teach:

Brainstorm and list fall sounds together.
Assign small groups to represent each sound.
Conduct groups to layer their sounds into a whole class composition.
Record the piece and let students evaluate what worked.

Variations:

Younger grades: simple sound effects with one instrument each.
Older grades: structure the soundscape into sections (ABA form, crescendo/decrescendo).

Extension: Compare their soundscape to pieces like Vivaldi’s Autumn or Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

4. Halloween Music Bingo

Bingo is always a hit – and with a spooky twist, it becomes the perfect October lesson! Instead of numbers, your Halloween Music Bingo boards feature songs or music concepts. Students listen, identify, and mark their cards until someone shouts “Bingo!”

Learning Goal: Reinforce listening skills, song recognition, and music vocabulary in a fun, game-based format.

How to Teach:

Hand out Halloween Bingo cards (3x3 for younger grades, 5x5 for older students).
Play short excerpts of the featured songs from your playlist.
Students mark the correct square if they hear it.
Keep playing until someone completes a row, column, or diagonal – then continue for blackout rounds to extend the game.

Variations:

Elementary grades: use a 3x3 grid for quicker rounds and easier recognition.
Upper elementary: use a 5x5 grid with a larger song pool for more challenge.

Extensions:

After the game, ask students to vote on their favorite spooky song and describe why.
Use a reflection activity in your Digital Music Journal where students write about how the music made them feel.

👉 Try my ready-made Halloween Music Bingo games:

Both versions include pre-made cards and a curated playlist, so you can play instantly without extra prep.

5. Apple Harvest Singing Game

Adapt a folk tune (like “Way Up High in the Apple Tree”) to create a fun call-and-response activity. Add actions like reaching, picking, and eating apples.

Learning Goal: Strengthen singing, call-and-response, and movement integration.

How to Teach:

Teach the simple folk tune.
Assign leader/response parts.
Add hand motions to act out “picking apples.”

Variations:

Younger students: keep it simple with motions.
Older students: challenge them to create new verses.

Extension: Add Instruments

Layer in a steady beat on drums or rhythm sticks while singing.
Use bells or xylophones to play the tonic or sol–mi accompaniment.
Helps connect singing with instrumental playing.

6. Composer Spotlight: Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre

Introduce your students to this perfectly spooky piece. Guide them to listen for key features: the violin tritone, xylophone skeleton bones, and the dance-like rhythm.

Learning Goal: Develop listening skills and recognise musical storytelling.

How to Teach:

Play a short excerpt and have students draw what they hear.
Discuss how instruments create mood and atmosphere.
Point out the tritone and the role of minor keys.

Variations:

Younger students: focus on identifying “spooky” sounds.
Older students: explore the idea of leitmotifs and recurring themes.

Extension: Soundtrack Comparison Activity

After listening to Danse Macabre, play a short excerpt from a modern Halloween soundtrack (e.g., Harry Potter’s “Hedwig’s Theme”, Nightmare Before Christmas, or even the Stranger Things theme).
Ask students:
- What makes both pieces “spooky”? (minor key, dissonance, instrumentation, rhythm)
- What’s different between Saint-Saëns’ 1800s style and a modern film score?
Create a Venn diagram as a class to compare the two.

7. “Witch’s Brew” Symbol Hunt

Turn music theory review into a Halloween adventure!

Hide music symbols (treble clefs, sharps, rests, dynamics, etc.) around the room. Students hunt for the symbols and add them to their “witch’s brew” cauldron sheets by naming or explaining each one.

Learning Goal: Reinforce recognition and meaning of music theory symbols in a kinaesthetic, playful way.

How to Teach:

Before class, hide multiples of 12–20 paper symbols around the room so there are plenty for everyone to find.
Give each student a cauldron recording sheet with space for at least 5 different ingredients (symbols).
Play spooky background music as students move around to find symbols.
When they find one, they:
- Write the symbol’s name (e.g., treble clef, forte, eighth note).
- OR draw the symbol into their cauldron sheet and explain its meaning.
The game ends when a student fills all 5 spots in their cauldron with different symbols.

Variations:

Younger grades: focus on 6–8 basics (quarter note, rest, treble clef, forte/piano).
Upper grades: include trickier ones (key signatures, accidentals, articulation marks).

8. Build a Fall Melody

Give students the chance to become composers by arranging fall-themed melody cards into short tunes. Each card features a solfege pattern (e.g., do–mi, sol–la–sol, do–re–mi). By combining several cards, students create their own “fall melody” to sing or play.

Learning Goal: Practice melodic sequencing, solfege fluency, and basic composition skills.

How to Teach:

Prepare cards with simple solfege patterns (laminate them for reuse). Use fall graphics – pumpkins, apples, or leaves – as the card background.
Divide the class into small groups. Give each group 4–6 cards.
Students arrange their cards in any order to form a short melody.
Groups perform their melody by singing or playing it on xylophones, boomwhackers, or keyboards.
Share as a class — each group performs their unique melody for peers.

Variations:

Younger grades: Use only 2–3 note patterns (sol–mi, la–sol–mi).
Older grades: Include longer or more complex patterns (do–mi–sol, minor patterns, or pentatonic scale fragments).
Allow groups to add simple rhythmic values to each card (quarter note, half note) before performing.

Extensions:

Have groups notate their finished melody on the staff.
Record the class’s “Fall Melody Album” by stringing all group compositions together.
Turn it into a game: each time students sing, they must “swap” one card with another group and perform the new version.

9. Fall Themed Listening Journals

Listening journals help students connect music to imagery, emotions, and vocabulary. Fall is the perfect season to pair reflection with themed repertoire such as Vivaldi’s Autumn, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, or Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre.

Students record their responses in a fall-themed journal – through writing, drawing, or digital reflection.

Learning Goal: Develop active listening skills, descriptive vocabulary, and creative reflection.

How to Teach:

Select a piece of autumn-inspired music (e.g., Autumn from The Four Seasons).
Before listening, prime students with a focus question:
- What instruments do you hear?
- How does this music make you feel?
- What images does it bring to mind?
Play the excerpt once just for listening.
Play it again while students draw or write in their listening journal.
Share reflections in pairs or as a class.

Variations by Grade:

Lower elementary: Focus on drawing what they imagine (fall leaves, animals, weather). Provide sentence starters like “The music sounds like…”
Upper elementary: Encourage use of music vocabulary (tempo, dynamics, timbre) and short written responses.

Extensions:

Digital option: Use the Digital Music Journal for instant reflection prompts in Google Slides.
Compare pieces: Have students listen to two contrasting fall works (Vivaldi’s Autumn Danse Macabre) and describe how each represents the season differently.
Creative writing: Ask students to write a short autumn story or poem inspired by the music, then share aloud.
Graphic organizer: Provide a Venn diagram, chart, or color wheel to help them organize musical observations.
Class mural: Combine drawings into a giant “Fall Music Wall” display that shows how everyone heard the same piece differently.

10. Scarecrow Freeze Game

A seasonal take on Freeze Dance, this game helps students move to music while practising concepts.

Students dance to fall or Halloween music, then freeze as scarecrows when the music stops.

Learning Goal: Reinforce listening skills, dynamics, articulation, and tempo through movement.

How to Teach:

Play fall-themed music as students move like scarecrows swaying in the wind.
When the music stops, students freeze instantly in a scarecrow pose.
Add musical challenges:
- Freeze as a forte or piano
- Move staccato vs. legato before freezing.
- Adjust movement speed for fast/slow excerpts.
- Freeze only during the B section to teach form.

Extensions:

Let students take turns being the “Scarecrow Master” who controls the music.
End with a “freeze tableau,” describing each pose using opposites (strong/weak, tall/small).
Use it as a quick assessment: are students responding correctly to dynamic or tempo cues?

Wrap-Up

Fall is the perfect season to bring fresh, engaging ideas into the music room.

These 10 activities strike a balance between fun and skill-building – from rhythm practice to creative composition – and can be adapted for use across grade levels.

👉 Want ready-to-use resources to save planning time? Explore my Halloween Music Bingo and Digital Music Journal – classroom-tested tools that keep students engaged and learning all October long.

Would you like more music teaching strategies? Check out these related posts to keep your lessons fresh and interactive!

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