Creepy castle

Song of the Week | Words and Music by Al Start

Learn the Makaton signs with Al Start

Sign along to the Creepy castle song with Al Start

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Lyrics

 
 

Activities

PDF

Pupil Activities

Learn some Makaton 
If you’ve never learnt any Makaton signs, then now is your chance. Watch the video of Al Start (who wrote the song) teach the signs and join in. 

Design your own creepy castle 
You could draw or paint it, design it on the computer or make a 3D one. It can be any shape or size you like, with turrets, ghosts, animals, cobwebs, cracked windows etc. 

Have a spooky party 
Throw a party and include some frightening food, ghoulish games and menacing moves. Here are some ideas: 

  • Gruesome lucky dip

With an adult cook up a big batch of spaghetti (for intestines) and when cold, mix in pickled onions or peeled grapes (for eyeballs), tomato sauce (for blood), or green food colouring, and jelly.  Ask an adult to bury a few wrapped treats at the bottom and decorate with small pretend spiders. Take turns to dip your hand in and find a treat! 

  • What’s the time Mrs Witch?

Play an alternative version of ‘What's the time Mr Wolf?’ Ask one player to dress up as a ghost/witch/character of their choice. They stand with their back to the other players, who are on the other side of the room. The players call out: “What’s the time Mrs Witch etc?” Mrs Witch then calls out a time and the players take that many steps forward. When Mrs Witch is asked the time and shouts “it’s midnight” all the players must run away. Whoever is caught becomes the new witch. 

  • Pass the pumpkin

Ask an adult to fill a carved-out pumpkin with treats, small prizes, jokes and challenges and then pass it around in a circle.  Each time the music stops, whoever’s holding it gets to pick out a prize.

Choreograph a creepy dance 
Use the backing track of Creepy castle and create your own ghoulish dance. How would a ghost, witch, zombie or bat move? Include some of these actions in your final performance. You could try some well-known dances too such as the monster mash. Find some themed music (Monster mash, The Time Warp or even La Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns) and play musical statues, musical bumps… or just have a disco!

Compose a scary soundscape
The backing track for Creepy castle includes a range of blood-curdling sounds and brilliant sound effects. Make a list of the ones you can hear i.e. witchy cackling and try recreating them. For an atmospheric performance, create your own spooky soundscape to set the scene. Explore ways to use your voice (and body percussion) to conjure up the effect of creaking doors, whistling winds and howling wolves. Put these together to create a scary soundscape and begin the backing track from here. 

Witchy brew 
Read the witches’ spell from Shakespeare’s Macbeth which is full of gruesome ingredients including the eye of a newt and the toe of a frog. Invent your own ghastly spell and include the most disgusting and descriptive ingredients you can. Write it out and decorate it.

Get writing

  • Construct an estate agent’s advert for the castle. Create an imaginary floor plan (complete with underground snake-pit etc.) and list the castle’s unusual architectural features, from the damsel-in-distress tower to the hall of screams ...
  • Write a diary entry from the perspective of the creepy castle’s resident ghost. 
  • In a group create a tableau (a living picture) of the creepy castle using just your bodies: work together to construct swinging drawbridges, lofty turrets, snapping portcullises – possibly with a vampire or two lurking within.
  • Write a terrifying poem, using alliteration. Start by thinking of spooky words that start with the same letter. What could you use to go with spider, broomstick, skeleton and cauldron? Here’s an example: The witch’s cat kept creeping closer to the cauldron.

Enjoy a creepy book
Read one of your favourite creepy books (some suggestions below.) 

  • The Witches by Roald Dahl
  • Room On The Broom by Julia Donaldson
  • Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski
  • The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy 
  • Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
  • The Graveyard Book and Coraline both by Neil Gaiman 
  • Night of the Living Dummy (Classic Goosebumps Series #1) by R. L. Stine
RPS Making Music Smart Teacher 2017 Teacher 2018 Besa Music & Drama Education Awards Music & Drama Education Awards 2023 Finalist