It’s officially spooky season! I’m excited to start sharing some fun Halloween-ish folk songs and today’s is a (not-so-spooky) spooky surprise song! I always had so much fun building the anticipation as I sang this one for my students, and after they learned it they’d try to spook their classroom teacher and we’d tell them to go home and spook their families, which they loved!
My undergraduate professor Dr. Jaccard taught me this folk song and he shared a few extra verses he’d add in older grades, but as my focus is in the early childhood years I think the verses I included on the song card are the safest to share with your young kids. It’s also interesting to realize how many variants there are of this folk song! I learned two others in addition to this one, and I’m sure there are many more, as most folk songs have!
This is an example of a “storytelling” folk song. The reoccuring “oo-oo-oo-oo” motif makes the storytelling atmosphere so fun, and ties the whole song together really well. You could also let the children improvise some additional verses to the story.
I included some ideas for actions on the song card download, which are a great way to keep the kids engaged as you’re singing. They will catch on to the actions pretty quickly, and be able to associate them with the verses to help them remember the words. So fun!
Click here to download the 4x6 song card
Happy Singing!
-Lauren