Hey friends! It’s Folk Song Friday, and today I’m sharing another super fun fall-themed folk song–“Pick a Pick a Pumpkin”. It’s starting to ease us into the Halloween-themed folk songs. I wanted to make sure to share a few non-Halloween Fall folk songs first because I always had a few students who did not celebrate Halloween and did not feel comfortable singing Halloween-themed songs, so to be respectful of that I like to keep a collection of fun fall/pumpkin themed songs that have nothing to do with Halloween, to make sure we can include those students.
Who doesn’t love a trip to the pumpkin patch, picking out just the right pumpkin? We’ve already visited the little pumpkin patch near our house a few times this year, and we still have several weeks before Halloween, so I’m sure we’ll go some more. It’s just delightful to see kids running around a pumpkin patch on the hunt for the perfect little pumpkin friend to bring home.
The game for this song is not traditional to the folk song (as far as I know there is no traditional game for this song?), but it is a great one for practicing feeling and tracking the steady beat, and linking that to moving to the steady beat, which believe it or not are two different yet equally essential skills for young children to master!
For slightly older children (Kinder+) you could incorporate a guessing element, where there’s one friend in the middle who closes their eyes as the friends pass the pumpkin, and at the end of the song, the friend has to guess who is holding the pumpkin. Guessing games are always a huge hit, but I find that the younger kids have a hard time remembering to hide their hands if they don’t have the pumpkin. Gotta love them! ❤️
Have so much fun with this song, and as always, remember to check back throughout the week for activities to go with this song. I’m planning some fun ones! Happy singing!
