If y’all haven’t picked up on my love for Halloween yet, you’re missing out. Since Halloween is only a couple of days away, I’ve got some last minute lessons for you!
Sometimes my 4th- and 5th graders are a little “too cool” for my spooky season activities. Please tell me your kids are like this too! The activities I’m going to share in this post are all based on “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edward Grieg. I always tell my 4th-5th graders that this piece is too scary for the little kids so I save it for them. 😂
We start out by doing a very short composer introduction and talk about the story of the piece. If you’re unfamiliar, here is a quick guide to how the story goes! We talk a lot about how this music tells the story of Peer Gynt without any words! If your district uses the Quaver curriculum, there’s also a fun listening activity there!
King of the Mountain Game (with a twist)
My kids are obsessed with Amy Abbott’s King of the Mountain Game. We play it a little differently. Instead of the kids moving spots around the room, we use mini erasers. Each student gets a rhythm card and 3 mini erasers to place in front of the card. I start the game by reading someone’s rhythm without saying the name of the student. That student has to recognize that I read their rhythm and immediately read it back to me. If they know it was their rhythm AND they read it correctly, it becomes their turn. If not, I get to steal one of their erasers! This continues as long as you want it to. The person with the most erasers at the end of the game wins!
My kids always want me to play with them because they try to trick me and steal all of MY erasers. They even make me change cards so I don’t memorize my rhythm. They’re completely obsessed with beating me and you know what? I’m all for it. They’re getting really good at reading rhythms and all they know is that they want to beat the teacher! I know this activity isn’t directly related to In the Hall of the Mountain King, but it’s a great tie in!
Play-Along Videos
If y’all have been around here for any amount of time, you know my love for play-along videos! It’s a perfect way to get instruments in the kids’ hands and give them instant success while playing! Musication is one of my favorite channels for play-alongs. They are super high quality and visually appealing.
Here are two options for In the Hall of the Mountain King. The first is a non-pitched percussion play-along and the second uses boomwhackers! My students LOVE doing these videos!
Compositions & Vocabulary
In the Hall of the Mountain King is the PERFECT piece to teach or reinforce accelerando and crescendo! It’s also great that the rhythms are super simple! Check it out below!
One of my favorite projects for my 4th and 5th graders to do is a simple composition using instruments! The goal for them is to incorporate accelerando and crescendo into their composition.
Using the four-measure rhythm below, I have my students create a piece that speeds up and gets louder as it goes. They can do this anyway they choose! I usually give them an idea to start with that looks something like this:
- Measure 1-4: mezzo piano/largo
- Measure 5-8: mezzo forte/moderato
- Measure 9-12: forte/presto
- Measure 12-16 fortissimo/vivace
We talk about how the piece should gradually get louder and faster. The first time we did this, many groups quickly changed the tempo and dynamics every time they repeated the line.
Some groups chose to just use one instrument and increase the tempo and dynamics on that instrument. Others chose to use a different instrument for each four measure phrase. (Start with an egg shaker and work up to a tubano.) They had such a fun time making these compositions and performing them for the class!
Hopefully this post gave you some ideas of how to use In the Hall of the Mountain King with your upper elementary kiddos! What activity are you looking forward to the most? Comment below or DM me on Instagram to let me know!
