I'm so glad it's fall! Cooler weather, low humidity, leaves changing colors and bright, sunshiny days can stay around all year as far as I'm concerned.
Today's post is about fall and the leaves that fall down from trees during this season.
I love to sing this song during the fall season for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the students absolutely love to sing this song and the repetitive lyrics make it easier for them to participate from the beginning. The second reason is that you can incorporate color identification and communication so easily within this song.
The main lyrics are:
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down.
Then the song sings about the following leaf colors: red, yellow, orange and brown.
I made a visual for this song that features a tree with the different colored leaves on it (all are laminated and leaves are velcro-ed on the tree).
With the more severe students I work with, our goal is to either give them opportunities to interact within the song like, "What color leaf falls down next?" (and the students would either eye gaze/point to the leaf they want. You can also give them a choice by pulling 2 different colored leaves off the tree for them to choose from. And yet another idea would be to assign leaf colors to different students and/or ask them, "Do you want a red leaf?" and let them answer Yes/No with an iTalk 2 voice output device. You can also ask questions like, "Is this leaf brown?" and possibly gauge their color identification skills like that. With other students, we use scarves and assign different colors to different students and when their color is being sung, they can move to the music as if they are fall leaves falling. Sometimes songs like this with scarves are very calming to students and help them stay focused.
The possibilities are endless with communication opportunities.
This song is definitely a favorite with many of the students I serve in a public school setting. I hear so much sing and vocalizing while when we sing this song! :)
What are your favorite fall songs to sing?
Stay tuned for more songs here at More with Music!