Halloween is filled with all sorts of colorful characters. Meet witches and ghosts, spiders and bats, cowboys, pirates, monsters, and more! There’s a lot of vocabulary to have fun with. One way to help young learners remember all these new words is by associating the word with a gesture. Gestures serve as a memory trigger and they are just fun to do.
Most Super Simple Songs are designed to be used with gestures. When you use gestures, very little pre-teaching is necessary. Teachers can seat the students in a circle and use the Halloween Complete Flashcards to teach some simple motions to go with each word. It’s always a good idea to have the students create the gestures themselves. When they create the gestures, it helps them internalize the language even more. Then have everyone stand up and play the music. You can sing along and demonstrate the song while the students follow your lead. Many kids will start to sing along as well, but even the kids who aren’t ready to sing will be able to participate with the gestures.
One of our favorite songs to sing in October is Hello, My Friends. It introduces a number of common Halloween characters/costumes in a super friendly way. Doing all of the gestures to the song is just challenging enough to keep the song interesting all month as we head into Halloween.
Hello, My Friends Lyric and Gesture Guide
Hello, my friends. Hello, my friends. (make a sweeping wave, first with one hand, then the other)
I’m so happy (point to yourself, then point to you cheeks with your index fingers as you smile)
to see you. (point to your eyes then point out)
Hello, my friends. Hello, my friends.
Let’s go (extend your pointer finger and thumb in the shape of an “L,” bring your hands up to your chest and then point outwards)
trick or treating (extend your hands out, palms up, first right than left)
Witches (make the shape of a pointy hat above your head)
and ghosts. (put hands close to the body at chest level and wiggle your fingers)
Witches and ghosts.
Cowboys, (circle one fist above your head like using a lasso)
pirates, (cover one eye with your hand like a patch)
and monsters. (outstretch arms and walk slowly with straight legs)
Spiders (cross your wrists and wiggle your fingers)
and bats. (cross arms over your chest like a sleeping bat)
Spiders and bats.
Let’s go trick-or-treating.
Hello, my friends. Hello, my friends.
I’m so happy to see you.
Hello, my friends. Hello, my friends.
Let’s go trick-or-treating.
Let’s go trick-or-treating.
These are just some suggestions, feel free to make up your own. Or create the gestures together with the kids.
You’ll bring your Halloween characters to life by acting them out with gestures!
For more Halloween song gestures and teaching tips, check out our How To Teach series where we explore the Super Simple Halloween songs:
- Can You Make A Happy Face?
- Five Little Monsters Jumping On The Bed
- Go Away!
- Knock Knock, Trick Or Treat?
- This Is The Way We Carve A Pumpkin
- Go Away, Spooky Goblin!
- One For You, One For Me
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