I vividly recall taking out the record album for Disney’s Haunted Mansion and playing it repeatedly for the whole month of October when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I’m guessing that record got thrown away long ago when I moved away from home. So, when I went to the link Disney recently shared for its Halloween music playlist, I was excited to see a track from the Haunted Mansion album, “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The first five notes brought me back to chilly autumn nights spent imagining the amazing costume I would wear for trick-or-treating that year (conveniently forgetting each year that it was always so cold in New Jersey that I might as well just wear pajamas under my winter coat).

This playlist is available on 11 different music platforms, including YouTube. It includes classic and contemporary songs. There’s a wide variety to appeal to different age groups, and some are less spooky than others.

What can you use this for?

• Wait time while students are joining class
• Background music while students are doing independent work
• Cues for different actions
• Writing prompts
• Connecting songs to literature or history
• Changing the lyrics to fit a different context (My students used to do this with the song, “Superman” by Five for Fighting when we read Tuck Everlasting, and it was powerful!)

I’m sure you can come up with even more ideas!