In the States, pumpkin-themed foods such as pumpkin lattes, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin cereal, and numerous other items begin appearing by mid-August. For years, there have been articles explaining why people in the States are so obsessed with pumpkins. Whether it relates to the psychological theory called “reactance” where we have the inclination to act on limited-time offers, or a nostalgic draw to pumpkins, or it is synonymous with an American feel, this is the time of year when pumpkins are found everywhere. Even in the music classroom, where they might not be experiencing the season of fall or have any pumpkins available to them, pumpkin songs, games, and music activities, appear.

I will admit that I love pumpkin-spiced everything from food to themed-filled activities in my music classroom. Pumpkins are one of those items that you can use to connect to students. It represents a season so teachers can use it to connect to all of their students as they all have some sort of understanding of the characteristics of this season.

Pass the Pumpkin

This was the seventh installment of my 2022 summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This one featured Pass the Pumpkin Round and Round as a play-along video and steady beat movement activities (Boomwhackers, Percussion, Xylophones, and Game) video.

Manipulatives

The manipulatives can be found at my Buy Me a Coffee page at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

Teaching the Song

Brief Description

I teach the song with solfege, which is a great way to prepare/present/practice a song based on "la." We then play the game and if the pumpkin lands on them, they are now in the band. This means that they play the gong first on the "boo." As more students have the pumpkin land on them, they rotate through the instrumentation, which consists of xylophones, metallophones, and classroom percussion. Eventually, everyone is in the band and the last person wins the pumpkin and places a sticker on the mosaic board. There is a video below that explains it all and has the parts.

More In-depth Description:

The process I would use depends on the age group and background musical knowledge of the students. The process would be something like the following:

• Warm up with pitch sets using “la” as the foundation.

• Teach the song using solfege one phrase at a time.

  • Discuss melodic direction and use movement to reinforce it.

  • Echo-sing each phrase with words.

  • Sing the entire song.

• Teach the steady beat bass line using their hands and laps.

  • Transfer that process to the xylophones.

• Sing the melody while they accompany themselves performing the bass line.

  • Remember that you can have one or two students play while the others sing.

  • You could also use virtual instruments like https://playxylo.com/ or https://www.doctormusik.com/apps-and-games/virtual-xylophone/

• Teach the percussion parts.

  • Prepare, present, and practice the rests found in the percussion parts.

  • Divide the class so that some sing, some play the bass part, and some play the percussion parts.

• Teach the steady beat game.

  • If they end up with the pumpkin, they join the band and play the instruments found in the song (or you could add more).

  • If the steady beat is too quick, have them perform the half-note rhythm.

  • Play until one student is left in the circle.

• If appropriate, teach how to perform the melody on boomwhackers, xylophones, or other melodic-pitched instruments.

Reactions

My students of all age groups love this activity. It takes around two to three classes to complete so that all students have turns to perform on the various instruments. The game is one they ask for often because they don’t get “out” in the game because they get to join the band. They like that when they are no longer in the circle passing the pumpkin, they can perform on various instruments.

For those students where passing the pumpkin to the steady beat is challenging, I will then change the tempo or change the passing to a half-note rhythm as opposed to a quarter note so that they experience success.

If there are students who perform in the band and have challenges keeping the steady beat, I will then sing with the students to help the steady beat. Eventually, there will be a student who can lead the band well by playing to a steady beat and performing successfully together.

Tips:

• If the video is too fast, use the YouTube

• If the portion of the video that has all of the parts is too busy, please feel free to skip that part.

• To break down the video so you can use it as a whole or teach it in parts:

  00:19 Melody

  01:28 Bass Line

  01:59 Percussion

  02:29 Steady Beat Game/Activity

  03:28 All of the parts together

I hope that you enjoy this activity and play-along video!

Resources:

Khan, Z. (2021, October 27). Why is America obsessed with pumpkins? WION. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/lifestyle/news-why-is-america-obsessed-with-pumpkins-424472

Nicholas, E. (2017, September 28). How pumpkins became an American obsession. Culture Trip. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/heres-why-americans-love-pumpkins-so-much/

Stoller-Conrad, J. (2012, November 20). Why americans go crazy for pumpkin and pumpkin-flavored stuff. NPR. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/11/19/165508669/why-americans-go-crazy-for-pumpkin-and-pumpkin-flavored-stuff