Did you hear that? This ready-to-teach packet turns a spooky-fun Halloween dance song into three short lessons on rhyme, sound words, the five senses and brave feelings.
In The Scariest Night of the Year, four friends dressed as a vampire, a witch, a skeleton and a pumpkin tiptoe past flickering streetlights. They hear knocks and scratches and wonder: is it a monster? Is it a ghost? Then the whole neighborhood turns into a dance party. Students sing, move and look closely at how the words build suspense. Then they talk about what their bodies do when something feels a little scary.
What's inside (21-page printable PDF):
3 sessions of 25–35 minutes each: Listen, Move, Freeze!; Sound Words and Rhymes; and Heart Goes BOOM
A 2-page sing-along lyric sheet with the "Scary, scary, HEY! HO!" call-and-response chant
Sound Word Detective, Rhyme Match and a The Song in Order sequencing page with scene cards from the video
My Five Senses chart, a Heart Goes BOOM feelings page and a Write a New Verse page with rhyming frames
8 Move Cards for freeze dance (each one has a seated version) and 4 exit tickets
Standards: Common Core RF.K.2a, RL.1.4, RL.2.4, RL.2.7 and SL.1.1; National Core Arts MU:Re7.2.Ka; CASEL Self-awareness
Background on the song, notes on teaching with care (including families who don't celebrate Halloween), key vocabulary, differentiation, a family page, an answer key and source links
Works with the free video on Teach Between the Lines TV (about 3½ minutes).
License: one teacher, for use with their own students. Please do not share, post publicly or resell.