I have a confession to make: I do not love Halloween 🤭

My daughter didn’t either. This was five years ago, I was teaching preschool music and my then 3 year old daughter was in one of my classes. Halloween was approaching and I was having trouble finding songs to use in her class, because she was TERRIFIED of anything and everything Halloween related. Completely terrified!

One night at midnight (the day before the class... when will I ever learn?), I decided to write a funny Halloween song for all of the kids who were afraid of Halloween ...turns out, there were a lot of them!

So, I wrote a song called the Shy Little Monster... a song about a very sweet little monster who's dressed up in a lobster Halloween costume. Within a few weeks, the song went viral(ish) in the music therapy world. People kept telling it needed to be a book, and a year later, we turned it into one!

I think the Shy Little Monster has made me like Halloween a little bit more…Shy Little Monster season is DEFINITELY my favorite time of year!

This Monster Music Lesson Plan for preschool and kindergarten music time includes this popular song of mine, turned book, in addition to one of my favorite movement songs and a song by none other than Laurie Berkner!

Here are the songs for the Monster music lesson plan and a quick break down of how I use them!

1. Hello Song

You can do any hello song that you would like! (Here’s a packet of some of my hello + goodbye songs, which you can download for free, or watch the video below for 3 other favorites!)

2. Five Little Monsters

Five Little Monsters is an adaptation of the very popular song Five Little Pumpkins.

It goes like this:

Five little monsters sitting on a gate.

The first one said, Oh, my it's getting late!

The second one said, there are ghosts in the air.

The third one said, but we don't care.

The fourth one said, let's run and run and run!

The fifth one said, let's have some fun!

So, whoosh went the wind and out went the light.

And five little monsters hid from sight.

I usually go through the song two to three times, and then I'll ask the kids: Do you know what the third monster said? What the second monster said? What the first monster said? and see what hey can recall from the song.

3. The Shy Little Monster

The Shy Little Monster is my song, turned book. For the purpose of this lesson plan, you can do the book or you could do the song. Your pick. I usually sing/read the book and the kids REALLY like to look at the pictures. Bringing out this book during my classes fills the classroom with instant quiet and calm.

We have the physical version of the book, there's also an ebook version {also an ebook version in Spanish!}, and we have an interactive flip book available at F-flat Books, if you’d like to use it in your virtual classes or sessions.

We also have the lyric video of the song on YouTube that you're welcome to use!

4. Monster Boogie

by Laurie Berkner

This one is such a winner in my classes! I changed the end a little bit to sort of, calm it down and get the kids to sit down.

This is how I do it:

I start out the song standing and stomping (“I'm the biggest monster that you’ve ever seen…etc.”).
Then, after you go through the song once, you can add to the lyrics: the monster wiggle, the monster jumping, the monster shaking, the monster shoulders, etc. You can add all sorts of movements and let the kids pick what they wanna do or let them suggest some of their favorite movements.
The very last movement that I recommend doing is “the monster tip toe… you know what I mean? Now let's all sit down.” With these lyrics, kids are prompted to get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and then they just sit! And it's a wonderful way to end the song [it took me about three or four classes to figure this one out and I then, I’ve used it every time and it has worked amazingly well every!]

5. Move To The Beat

Then, we do a movement song. Since all the kids are sitting now, I go ahead and do my sitting movement song, which is a good transition after a more active activity like The Monster Boogie. Transitioning to the sitting movement song is really helpful as we move towards the end of our lesson plan.

There’s also a verse in this song that has the magical power to quiet down a group of 25 preschoolers ALL AT ONCE. Complete silence--I kid you not! I discovered it by accident one day and now I use this trick all the time and it works over and over again. (Hint: It's the eyebrow verse.)

Another verse that works to engage kids at the end of the song is “wiggle your nose” because is also really tricky for them to do and they have to give it their whole focus to do it. Other complex movements I love for similar reasons are “wiggle your toes” or “wiggle your pinkies.”

Here’s the song:

6. Instrument Exploration

In every group, I try and do some instrument exploration (some ideas on how to do this here, here and here). A good monster themed one might be to pass around some castanets. You could put eyeballs on the castanets, little googly eyes, so that they turn into little monsters. Pass the castanets around the room and use a musical cue so the kids know when it’s their opportunity to play or when it’s time to pass it along to the person next to them.

At this point, iff you have extra time, you can sing or play any “old” or familiar song that you've used from the past.

Need some recommendation of some great Halloween songs? We got you!

7. Goodbye Song

Lastly, we sang a goodbye song. If you need fresh and new goodbye songs, you might want to download my Hello + Goodbye Songs Packet (for free!). You can download it HERE.

I hope this gives you a couple of ideas in the last couple of weeks of October! 🎃

Did you know I create new preschool and kindergarten lesson plans every months for the Music For Kiddos Community members? If you liked this lesson plan, you might love my library of more than 400 early childhood music resources, including lesson plans with original songs and visuals. The Community welcomes new members twice a year. Learn more about it and sign up for the waitlist HERE.