Teacher Tuesday: favorite fall music lessons

I'm linking up with some other wonderful music teacher bloggers today to share one of my favorite fall-themed music lesson. Make sure you check out all of the posts linked up at the end of this post- tons of great ideas have been shared already and I have actually used several in my classes already!

One of my favorite songs for fall is "Autumn Leaves Are Falling":

If somebody knows the source for this song, please let me know. This is another one of those songs that I picked up somewhere long ago and have no idea where it came from! I've done some research to no avail, but I would love to give credit if I can find the source!

I love this song because it is in a minor key, and it perfectly captures the mood of fall leaves. I use this song with Kindergarten to practice steady beat. Usually I start by having students pat the beat on their legs while I sing, then after we discuss the words, they keep the beat while swaying their hands back and forth, gradually going from high to low (mimicking a falling leaf), then do the same with a scarf. After that I add instruments. This year I used hand bells and boomwhackers on D and A and had them play on the beat, but I have also used it in the past with barred instruments, as well as adding some simple rhythmic ostinati on unpitched percussion. The students love the song year after year, and I love having a song in a minor key to add to their repertoire.

Do you have a favorite music lesson with a fall theme? Share your ideas by adding your blog post to the linky below!

An InLinkz Link-up