It’s the week of Halloween and we’ve been having a lot of fun working on counting with 1:1 correspondence, turn taking, sequencing, and imitating gross motor movements using 5 Little Pumpkins. Sometimes we use it as a chant with fingers and/or visuals like you see above. Other times, we use an adapted melody from 5 Little Ducks with pauses for the instrument solos. Click on the audio bar below the lyrics to how we use the melody and instruments!

5 little pumpkins siting on a gate

The first one said, “my it’s getting late”. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock [Tap an imaginary watch; castanet, claves, or rhythm sticks]

The second one said, “there are witches in the air”. Oooooo [Place hands around mouth like a loudspeaker; stir xylophone]

The third one said, “but we don’t care, we don’t care”. [Shake pointer finger; use xylophone or glockenspiel E-D-C or in key]

The fourth one said, “let’s run and run and run”. [tap hands quickly on knees; hand drums or paddle drums]

But the fifth one said, “it’s just halloween fun, ha, ha, ha, ha”. [giggle together; use echo mic to laugh into]

Whoosh went the wind [bring arms in together to show wind] and out went the light [clap]

And the 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight [show 5 fingers then roll hands in fists together]