Let Us Chase the Squirrel is a fall staple in my classroom. It’s a great song to teach half note and it comes back later in the year with my students for Re. And it has a fun game. Let’s explore some of the ways I use Let Us Chase the Squirrel in my classroom.

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The Song

Tone Set: DRMS
Rhythm Set: Ta, Ti-Ti, Ta-a
Rhythmic Form: ABAC
Melodic Form: ABAC

The Game

Game 1: Students form groups of three.  Two students make trees, and the third is the squirrel in the tree. Remaining children are the squirrels in the open. If there are no children left, the teacher gets to play too!  Sing the song, and at the end, all the squirrels run to a new tree.

 Game 2: Students stand in a circle with their hands cupped behind their back. One student, the squirrel”, goes around the outside of the circle and on the last word of the song drops a nut in the hand of the closest person. The recipient of the nut tries to catch the “squirrel” before he/she can return to the empty space. NOTE: Better to use a fake acorn because of food allergies.

Check out this cute little stuffed acorn for this game.

Or you can grab these toy acorns which would also work as a manipulative for small writing activities.

Half Note

This is a great song to teach half note. When you teach half note, it’s important to teach the concept of a “tie” first. Even though this seems counterintuitive as that can be seen as a hard concept, tie is important to help students understand how we get to half note.

When students have been preparing half note and are you are ready to present or make conscious:

Start with four chairs to represent four beats. Have students sit in the chairs to represent the beat. Start with 4 quarter notes. Have students read the rhythm (Ta Ta Ta Ta). Now is where it gets a little silly and students love it. Have 2 students sit in a chair (next to each other) to represent Ti-Ti. Read the rhythms and move students around. Finally, go back to 4 quarter notes. Have two beats hold hands between them to represent the tie. If you want to get very fun (and ask permission from your students), you can tie their hands together with a neck tie! Then you can show them what a tie looks like in notation. Practice reading notation with the tie.

The next class after you students practice reading tie, you can present half note. Tell students there is another way to write notation instead of tying notes together. Show half note and read the same patterns in half note. It may be good to go back and forth between notation with tie and notation with half note so students can really show the connection.

Re

This song is a wonderful example of Re with lots of repeated stepwise motion between Do-Re-Mi. The big point to call out when preparing Re is that it is higher than do but lower than mi. Of course, you’ll walk students to answer that conclusion themselves by asking questions.

Resource

Check out this file for rhythm and solfege teaching for Let Us Chase the Squirrel. It includes prepare, present and practice slides for Tie, Half Note, and Re as well as teaching tools for no-screen activities and worksheets for assessment.

Looking for more fall activities? Check these out.

Hope this gave you some great ideas for Let Us Chase the Squirrel!