Halloween Art Project

I taught my grade 2 classes the song, “The Thing that Isn’t There” from the grade 2 “Share the Music” text. It’s a fun, spooky song to sing and the kids just loved it! It also provokes discussion around the scary things that we can create in our imaginations – i.e. a monster under the bed, something hiding in the closet, behind the shower curtain, etc. Our minds – especially young minds – are extremely creative and we can scare ourselves silly with things that aren’t even there at all.

I thought of a fun art project that really goes along with the concept of thingsthat “aren’t there.” I gave each of the students a sheet of white paper (I wrote their names on them in pen first) and a white crayon. I had the students draw a picture of “the thing that isn’t there” from their imagination. You can only see their creation if you look really, really closely. At first glance, it looks like nothing is there.

On another day, I brought in water colour paints and set up paint stations around my music room. I handed back their seemingly “blank” creations, and we painted over top of the crayon. The water colour paint resists the wax, and pulls away from it. In other words, the colour sticks to the paper where the crayon is not, leaving a clear picture of what they drew. It’s like magic! The students thought it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen. And now they will never forget the song they learned!

Halloween Sound Effect “Tableaus” using Audacity & free sound samples

We had a Halloween activity day for the whole school. I was in charge of a “music” station. For 5-7 minutes each, groups of 4-6 students would visit me and I had to find something fun, engaging, and QUICK!

We are slightly technology-challenged (as in lack of equipment) at my school, so I’ve seen it as my duty to start introducing a few new things to the students. Here is what I used:

• My personal laptop
• A 27″ external monitor (also could be done with LCD projector, but ours was in use so I made do with the monitor)
• A set of laptop speakers
• “Audacity” – a free audio recording program (get it here)
• A collection of free “halloween” sound samples that I downloaded onto my computer  – i.e. wind, rain, footsteps, thunder, screams, ghost sounds, howls, etc) (get them here)

I had the students sitting on mats around the monitor. Since we only had 5 minutes to complete the activity, I had prepared cards in advance with each sound effect written on them. I had 3 different types of footsteps, so they went on one colour card, and were each numbered, “F1″, “F2″, and “F3″. Those went into one pile. Then, on another colour card, I numbered my scream sound effects, “S1″, “S2″, etc. I did this with each type of sound effect I had downloaded specifically for this project.

I had each student in the group pick one sound effect, and that was the one I would use in their “tableau” (I should also mention that I had opened each of the sound effects that could potentially be used in one window so that as each student chose their sound effect for their group, I just located it in the first window, and then copied and pasted into “their” window.

Some sound effects we had lasting for the entire tableau  (about 15 seconds) – i.e. wind, rain, etc.

Other sound effects were used more sparingly – i.e. a scream, thunder crashing. In these cases, I would ask the students where they would like that particular effect located – at the beginning, middle, or end.

We ended up with some pretty cool sound effect scenes! And it actually worked for 5 minutes. If I had more time with the students, I would have them manipulating the sound samples themselves, adding effects, moving them around, etc. Now that they all have been introduced to the program and have seen how it works, I may be able to do this in a lab setting later on.

Here is one example of a grade 6 group’s finished product. I think they did a great job!

Legends and ghost stories

I’ve been having trouble keeping my grade 6 students engaged. The “junior high” mentality just kicks in earlier and earlier – they know they’re at the top of the totem pole here at the elementary school, and they think they’re too cool for what I have to offer sometimes. It’s ok though – they keep me on my toes! I like a challenge!

For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be researching our local history for ghost stories, legends, and the like. We listened to a song today called, “The Ghost Ship” and we discussed the elements that made this particular arrangement an effective retelling of the tale of this ghost ship. I am going to have the students work in small groups (2-3 students per group) to research a legend or ghost story that originates from around our area. Then, they are going to collaborate on writing the lyrics to a song based on that legend or ghost story. Once the lyrics are finished, then I will help them put a melody to it (if they don’t already have one in mind) and we’ll create simple accompaniments that will suit the style and feel of their piece. Hopefully, we’ll then record their compositions.

When I presented the idea to them, they immediately loved it. I think that my two grade 6 classes just really love to be hands-on and they like to be treated as responsible people who can handle a project such as this – they feel important, and that this is going to be something worthwhile.

That they are already taking ownership of this project makes me super excited – I think it will be all that much more meaningful to them