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With all the craziness in December, sometimes you just need an easy, no-fuss lesson. Here are 7 (+ an extra fun bonus idea!) Christmas music class activities for those days leading up to the holiday break when you don’t have time to plan.
#1 – A Holiday Music Sing-along
If you teach music, you probably already sing Christmas or holiday music in your lessons. But why not have a full-on holiday sing-along class? Students will enjoy singing familiar tunes, and you can relax with the lesson planned for you.
For the music, you could set up your own holiday playlist. Or, you can find many holiday sing-along videos ready to go, such as the one below.
For a fun twist, play ‘Guess the Tune’ before your sing-along. Play a few seconds of each song, challenging students to guess the names of the upcoming songs.
#2 – Play-along Videos for Engaging Holiday Music Lessons
Whether your students are playing instruments or working on rhythm, holiday music play-along videos are a great option. You can also use body percussion – clapping, stomping, etc. instead of an actual instrument.
Find a video that uses the rhythms your students know, and you’re ready to go.
You can try my play-along video for ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ from The Nutcracker. It uses quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests to play along with the A section.
If you enjoyed this video, check out my accompanying Google Slides™ lesson on the ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’.
#3 – Listening Activities for Calm Christmas Music Lessons
Listening to holiday music and coloring is the perfect calming activity for an otherwise hectic school day. You can sit back and let your students listen to music and color in peace. But you don’t have to feel guilty since you’ll still be reinforcing musical concepts and assessing their understanding!
If you’ve never tried listening glyphs before, they are coloring sheets that ask students to show their musical understanding of a specific piece of music. For example, you might color the star on the tree yellow if you hear percussion but red if you don’t.
If you’d like some print-and-go activities, my huge set of holiday listening glyphs (Christmas, winter, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa) is available here. It includes three levels to suit various ages and knowledge levels.
#4 – Watch The Nutcracker
Maybe you’re lucky and have actually gone to see The Nutcracker ballet. But for the rest of us, an easy class (and a great experience for your students) is to watch the ballet (or an excerpt, depending on your class length) together in class.
Here is a link to my favorite YouTube performance of the ballet.
To keep your kids engaged while watching, an activity to do with the ballet helps a lot. To be sure they are engaged and paying attention, try using listening glyphs for various scenes of the ballet.
I have a set of Nutcracker listening glyphs here that includes a page for every scene of the ballet (in 3 levels of musical knowledge).
#5 – Read Storybooks
Reading picture books is always a good addition to a music lesson. If you will be watching The Nutcracker ballet above, you could read a storybook about The Nutcracker together first so your students understand the story better as they watch the ballet.
Your library likely has a copy of The Nutcracker story, but if not, here is a favorite version you can find on Amazon.
For even more book ideas for holiday music lessons, check out The 10 Best Holiday Books for Teaching Music.
#6 – Bingo for Last-Minute Holiday Music Lessons
Bingo is always a go-to activity for a reason – it’s easy to set up, familiar to kids, and everyone has fun!
There are lots of ways to incorporate music and the holidays into your bingo game.
Here are a few holiday bingo games I’ve created over the years:
#7 – Let them Color (while reviewing rhythms, of course!)
Sometimes, it is okay to just let your students color. Everyone loves to color, even older students!
Try a color-by-music activity that reinforces whatever concept your students have been learning. For example, these Christmas color-by-rhythm worksheets (or the Hanukkah versions).
BONUS – Christmas Music Escape Room for Exciting Holiday Music Lessons
So, this activity isn’t calm. But it is surprisingly easy to put together, and I couldn’t resist adding it to the list!
Your students will love working together to save Christmas. And you will love seeing them use all the musical skills you’ve been teaching them!
Purchase the Christmas Music Escape Room here.
