Fall Fun! Vocal Explorations and Jack-o-lantern Stack- a melody and rhythm matching game for fall

I LOVE Autumn- the sweaters, the boots, the cool weather- it is definitely my favorite season.  Maybe it's because my birthday is in the Fall... 

One of my favorite things to do is coming up with new games for my students to play and I made this one last year for my students hand-writing it all. However,  I decided this year to convert my "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman" files in my TPT store to work for any season and hence came the digital version of Jack-o-lantern stack! There are five levels of the game so far that start with ta (quarter note), ti-ti (beamed eighth notes), quarter rest and move up all the way through the l,-d-r-m-s-l-d' tone set and tika-ti (2 16th notes beamed with an eighth) rhythms.  All are on sale for 20% off through September 29, 2014!

For the game, the students match 3 pumpkins- one with a song title, one with the melody written in solfa notation and one with the rhythm.  

Students can then extend the activity to write all or parts of the songs onto the staff using a worksheet, an interactive white board or other manipulatives.  This activity is great for stations or small group work with-in your general music class.  I have played in various ways:

Game A: In groups, have students correctly match a given song.  This can either be done for practice where each group takes their time and you move onto the next song when all groups are successful– each team getting a point when they correctly match all 3 Jack-o-lanterns OR you can have students race and the 1st group to correctly match the given song is the only group to get the point. 

Game B:  Students are challenged to correctly match as many songs as possible in the given time limit (approximately 5 minutes). The team with the most correct matches wins!

Extension: Have students match a song, and then transfer the knowledge of the melody and rhythm combined to write the song In staff notation, giving the place for DO.  This can be on a dry-erase board, Interactive whiteboard, OR worksheet (attached).

Students love to race to match the most songs or when in stations we see which group can match the most in the given time (usually 5 or 6 minutes.) 

Other Versions: 
Jack-o-lantern stack solfege: Big Set
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman solfege: Big Set
Jack-o-lantern stack instruments: Orchestra
Jack-o-lantern stack music terms: Vocab
Other Seasons Instruments: Orchestra and Classroom
Other Seasons music terms: Vocab

Also posted recently on my TPT store were Fall themed Vocal Exploration Pathways sets.  I posted 3 sets- an Autumn themed set with cute raccoons playing in the leaves, Ghost set with adorable ghosts, and a Halloween set with spiders, ghosts, Frankenstein and more! Students follow the given path on one page and on the next can draw their own.  Each set has 30 pages of fun for students! All 3 are also posted as a bundle and it's priced as a buy 2 get 1 free deal! 90 pages of vocal explorations for only $3.00!

Have fun with these fall products and check out some of my other fall ideas for the younger ones here: http://emilyskodalymusic.blogspot.com/2012/10/3-fall-highlow-activities.html

Don't forget to follow me on facebook! www.facebook.com/emilyskodalymusic