This week, I read Joy Morin's post about the "Rainy Rhythm" game that she played with her five-year old beginners class. Inspired, I went to the craft store to get some supplies to make the game myself. Looking through the aisles, I noticed the large amounts of Halloween-themed craft supplies, and was suddenly struck with the idea to make "Pumpkins and Ghosts" instead of "Rainy Rhythm". The rules are the same, but now it is in seasonal form! Pumpkins become half notes, and ghosts are quarter notes. 

What I saw that made me think of doing a Halloween-themed game were some packages of foam sticker and cutouts. That, and a stick-on magnet roll,  are all that it took to make these! I made two sets; a large set to introduce the game, and a smaller set for students to use individually. I made the smaller foam stickers and the cut-outs into magnets and this has proven to be a great asset. Also, because the magnets began as foam stickers, I could give each student enough stickers for them to 'compose' their own Pumpkins and Ghosts piece on a piece of cardstock. After learning how to count the Ps and Gs ("PUMP-kin, Ghost, PUMP-kin, Ghost"), I asked them to arrange them on their piece of paper in whatever order they wanted. Then they assigned fingerings to each sticker, practicing what they wanted on their mini keyboards. I showed them later how they could play their new piece anywhere on the keyboard, which they found very exciting. This became their piece to practice for the week! (Along with their review pieces, of course!) Additionally, the package of foam stickers I bought included witches hats, which will work great as dotted half notes in a week or two. 
I used these magnets in several lessons this week and they were always a hit. I am interested to see how well their Pumpkin and Ghost training will transfer to seeing and counting real half and quarter notes; it is looking very positive so far!