Best of November in the Music Room

Sarah King
Nov 16
5 min read

I often gloss over November and Thanksgiving songs in my class because I spend so much time on Halloween and then it feels like we’re rushing to get ready for our big Winter Sing-Along, but I’m trying to fully embrace the Thanksgiving and turkey vibes this year. Here are a few of my favorites:

Upper Elementary

A Pumpkin Ran Away

I learned this song originally from my colleague and friend, Brooklynn Howell, and now we sing it every November.

The song is really enjoyable to sing with one tricky line. I like making students pretend to speak very proper English and repeating the phrase "They'd make," said he "a pie out of me if I should stay." First, we speak it a few times in our posh accents and then we sing it, which seems to help them get over the awkward phrasing.

Once they have the song learned, we play the game. Students stand in a line—ideally, you'd have 8-12 kids in each line but the more kids in line, the harder the game. Then while singing the song, students pass the ball backwards over their heads to the person behind them until the ball gets to the last person in line. That person holds the ball until the song is over. Then we all say "ready, set, go!" and the last person tries to roll or bowl the ball between the legs of everyone in their line. There's no prize, other than pride, for getting the ball through and it's a good way to get kids to work as a team without the stakes being too high.

After the ball is retrieved, I play a little "boom-chuck" on the piano while the first person in line goes to the back and everyone takes a step forward before we play again. If your students are relatively successful at getting the ball all the way through, I give them a challenge round at the end where everyone in the class lines up and we have one person try to make it through the entire line.

A Turkey Ran Away

This is an original song I made up loosely based on the game and song Mango Walk. I wanted a fun yet challenging game for my upper elementary students and I love games where the person who has the ball/object at the end is NOT out.

This game is a little complicated to describe, but once you get it, it’s so much fun! Start by having students stand in a circle. They begin by passing the ball around the circle to the beat while singing the song. Whoever has the ball on the word “splat” holds onto it and we point to the next people in the circle while we say “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, turkeys hide to stay alive.” Point to one person on every syllable, not every word. So “tur-keys” is 2 people. Whoever you point to on the syllable “live” of “a-live” is out and becomes the farmer in the middle of the circle. The game continues with passing the ball around the circle. When the second person gets out, the current farmer sits down in that person’s spot creating a space. Now the ball gets passed around the circle except where the person is sitting, the ball is bounced to the next person.

In this example, the ball is going clockwise around the circle. Person 1 passes to 2 who passes to 3. Then 3 bounces the ball to 5 since 4 is out and sitting down. Then 5 and 6 pass the ball. But 7 has to bounce the ball all the way to 10 since there are two people sitting down in between. The game is constantly changing and the kids love it. I tell the farmer that they get to be the referee for the round where they’re in the middle. So if someone drops the ball or bounces when they were supposed to pass, the farmer gets to make the call for who is out.

Fun for All: Color by Note

Color by Note: Thanksgiving/Fall

$2.25

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This set includes 10 unique designs that help students reinforce note recognition and symbol identification while expressing their creativity.

Each design comes in two differentiated versions to suit all learners:

Level 1 (Easier): Students match and color based on pictures of musical symbols (e.g., 🎵 = green).
Level 2 (Challenging): Students match and color using note names only (e.g., eighth notes (2) = green)

You can see my example and my preschooler's attempt as well. In my defense...he was not interested in following the "rules" and I let him express his creativity however he wanted.

Lower Elementary

Shoo Turkey

The song Shoo Turkey is based on Bessie Jones’ original recording heard here in the Lomax Digital Archives. The version I use is this one from Lynn Kleiner and it’s in the key of F and happens twice on the recording. First I play the song and have students listen for any parts that repeat. The second time through the song, I lead students in singing the response “yes, ma’am” and “so, so” and then demonstrate the “shoo turkey” part as well. After listening to the song, I make up a story that goes something like this:

One day, you go to a farm and you see a lonely turkey in a pen. You remember that it’s November and that many people eat turkeys for Thanksgiving so you decide to try to save this turkey. When no one is watching, you go over and open the gate and then shoo the turkey away encouraging him to fly to the moon! When the farmer comes over, she notices that the turkey is missing. She starts to ask you questions and you pretend to be very helpful, always answering respectfully, “yes, ma’am.” but secretly you’re trying to buy the turkey more time to fly away.

After we get the story part down, I show students how and when to play the instruments. I use xylophones (F octaves) and Boomwhackers (green: F). I put 3-4 students at each instrument station and have xylos play for “yes, ma’am” and “so, so” and have Boomwhackers play on the “shoo turkey” section. At the end of the song, students quickly put down their instruments and go to the other group to repeat the process. The students who aren’t playing are singing and doing the actions in their spots.

Five Fat Turkeys

I thought this song was missing something...mainly the rest of the story. So I wrote additional verses to sing and I also made this slideshow with a chef that comes around each time and I make my kids "hide" in their spots (aka sit VERY still while the chef is moving around )