Inspired by Ann’s Halloweeeen Blog, I found the following song from a brilliant little book called ‘Three Singing Pigs – making music with traditional stories’ by Kaye Umansky.

The Hairy Scary Castle Story is told in narrative and cumulative song to the tune of Glory, glory, hallelujah! This story is great to encourage vocal and motor imitation through scary sound effects.

What you need to do:
Get pictures or objects of the following to help develop your child’s understanding of language: a door, skeleton, bat, rat, clock, stairs, wind (e.g. bottle – blow across the top).

Sound effects:
Here are some suggestions for sounds that can be used with the pictures.
    Door: vocal squeak ranging from high to low.
    Skeleton: gnash teeth or drum nails on tabletop.
    Bat: clap backs of hands together.
    Rat: short, high vocal squeaks.
    Clock: click tongue.
    Stairs: deep creaky vocal sound.
    Banging doors: stamp feet or slamming a heavy book shut.
    Wind: whoosing mouth sounds.
    Boo!: try whispering it throughout the song, saving up a really scary BOO! for the very last time.

The story:

Narrator: The Hairy Scary Castle is full of rooms…and who knows what you will find in them. Slowly, you push open the door into the first room …. (squeaky door sound) ….and it’s full of skeletons (skeleton sound)!
Everybody sing:
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
Where skeletons RATTLE
And ghosts go BOO!

Narrator: You open the next door (squeaking door sound) … and it’s full of squeaking rats (rat sound) and flapping bats (bat sound)!
Everybody sing:
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
Where the rats go SQUEAK,
And the bats go FLAP!
Where the skeletons RATTLE
And ghosts go BOO!

Narrator: You open the next door (squeaking door sound) … and you enter the shadowy hallway with a big old clock standing at the bottom of a dark flight of creaky stairs.
Everybody sing:
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
Where the stairs go CREAK!
And the clock goes TOCK!
Where the rats go SQUEAK,
And the bats go FLAP!
Where the skeletons RATTLE
And ghosts go BOO!

Narrator: You climb the stairs (creaky stairs sound) and you open the door into the bedroom (squeaking door sound)……. And the wind goes whoosing through and all the doors behind you go BANG!
Everybody sing:
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
In the Hairy Scary Castle,
Where the wind goes WHOOSH!
And the doors go BANG!
Where the stairs go CREAK!
And the clock goes TOCK!
Where the rats go SQUEAK,
And the bats go FLAP!
Where the skeletons RATTLE
And ghosts go BOO!

Narrator: Last of all, you open the door to the attic (squeaky door sound) …. And the all the ghosts go ….. BOO!!! (loud).

The End!
Have a great Halloween!

© Marinet Van Vuren, DSC  2009

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