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Fun Holiday music and movement activities for complete music lessons in grades K-3. Holiday music activities for the elementary music classroom.
The holidays can be a fun time to really pull things together in the music classroom. We’ve been practicing the steady beat, rhythm, singing and moving now for the first 2 quarters and we’re ready to show off our skills.
I’m sharing more activities than you can use during one music lesson.
The CONCEPTS covered in these activities include:
STEADY BEAT, RHYTHMS, SINGING and MOVEMENT
All the activities are free and in this blog post.
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I like to do a steady beat activity each class time.
One fun way to do this is to use a holiday song and have students do different body percussion moves to the familiar music.
Put on your favorite holiday song with a good beat and clean lyrics and use some body percussion cards or a presentation to move on the beat.
You can use this free resource with any music.
Another fun Steady Beat activity is “Jingling Bells” TPT STORE LINK
It’s available on:
LYRICS:
Jingling bells, jingling bells,
Shiny, chiming jingling bells.
Jingling bells, jingling bells shake them all around.
Shake them high up to the sky.
Shake them low down to your toes.
Shake them as fast as you can go.
Now shake them very, very slow.
REFRAIN
I love to shake my jingling bells morning, noon, and night.
I love to shake them up and down and shake them left and right.
There’s also some fun body percussion activities on the Sing Play Create YouTube channel.
I model the movements first and have students’ practice.
Then I’ll have them move on the beat using a drumbeat.
Finally, we’ll use the video.
GET THE RESOURCES for the COMPLETE set of MATERIALS
Holiday Movement Song and Activity “Reindeer Beat” Brain Break, Body Percussion TPT STORE LINK
Holiday Elves Body Percussion Steady Beat Play Along Activity: Video Google Apps TPT STORE LINK
Elementary music students will love moving with these adorable little Christmas Elves Body Percussion actions on the Steady Beat. Students will love to play and move with the elves as the move to the beat using the video activity.
Reindeer Body Percussion Steady Beat Play Along Activity: Video Google Apps TPT STORE LINK
Reindeer Body Percussion Steady Beat Play Along Activity. Get ready to move on the beat! These active reindeer are pawing in the snow to play with your students! All the body percussion actions are on the Steady Beat.
Here’s a fun activity to give students a chance to sing and play instruments.
I created two versions of the song-one with and one without instruments.
Sing SANTA to the tune of BINGO. We’ll be using instruments to play when we don’t say the letters.
You’ll need 5 instruments to represent the letters in the word SANTA.
The free resource has the words to the song, the letters, and pictures of instruments in a google document as well as the directions.
Here’s how it goes.
There was a man with a long white beard, and Santa was his name-o!
S A N T A
And Santa was his name-o!
REPEAT – ANTA
REPEAT – – NTA
REPEAT – – – TA
REPEAT – – – – A
REPEAT – – – – –
The next activity is a music lesson. In this activity students will sing and learn to play beat and ostinato using “ We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. We’ll be using rhythm sticks and bells.
In this music lesson we’ll play quarter note, eighth notes and quarter rest.
First everyone will learn all parts, then we’ll practice in small groups and finally we’ll play all parts together.
I’ll teach these activities over 2-3 weeks.
Sing the song
Play the Steady Beat
Play Ostinato on Bells
Play Ostinato on Rhythm Sticks
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” Music Lesson TPT STORE LINK
WEB SHOP LINK
In this game students are asked a question and then they get to choose their answer which has them play a certain rhythm.
I go through the video and pause on each section first to give them a heads up to the rhythms and questions.
We practice both rhythms so that when they play the game it will be easy for them to choose and play on their own.
GET THE RESOURCE
Holiday Rhythm Game “Would You Rather” L1 Rhythm Play Along TPT STORE LINK
In the free resources you’ll find rhythms for quarter, eighth, sixteenth, half and whole notes. For primary grades I’m going to use the quarter and eighth notes.
The first thing I do with this kind of activity is to teach it to the whole class.
Place 4 flash cards on the board and have them say and play the rhythms.
Next we’ll use some fun instruments to play as they practice the rhythms.
The next class you can have students create the patterns and lead the class.
The third class you can divide students into duets/pairs or trios/3 have them work on patterns together.
Use a variety of instruments for students to play the rhythms.
Then you can use this activity in a station. You can use it in 2 different ways.
Divide the class into small groups. At these two stations they will take turns creating. The other students in the group play the rhythms or melodies too.
You can use pitched and non-pitched instruments.
Choose your instruments for each station. Determine if you want everyone to play an instrument or if you want them to take turns.
One station will be the rhythm station. Students will create a four beat pattern and play the pattern. You can have all play the pattern or take turns. For 2nd and 3rd grades I include one drum at the station for a student to keep the steady beat.
One station can be a pitched instrument station. Place a xylophone at this station. Remove all the bars except for the ones you want the students to use. Students will create a four beat pattern and play the pattern. Make sure they sing as they play. The other students in the group can sign as they sing if you’re only using one instrument at this station.
Another option is to use a rhythm play along video like this one.
When I use a video, I pause in the different sections before playing it with the music.
I do offer a Rhythm Level 1 Play Along, Google Slides and Flash Cards activity in the TPT STORE and WEB SHOP.
Holiday Rhythm Activities: Rhythm Play Along, Read, Play, Compose {Level 1} TPT STORE LINK
After these fun rhythm activities, it’s time for movement. There’s tons of activities on YouTube.
Here are some of the most watched activities.
REINDEER POKEY https://youtu.be/lxHrT06vF1Y
HOLIDAY FREEZE DANCE- https://youtu.be/I-j5HY2TPDQ
SANTA’S GOT A BRAND NEW DANCE- https://youtu.be/W74zUq9Gz5o
These activities are also available with more materials.
Reindeer Pokey Literacy & Movement Activity Song TPT STORE LINK
Christmas Action Song “Santa’s Brand New Dance ” Movement & Literacy Activities TPT STORE LINK
Holiday Freeze Dance, Brain Break, Exercise, Movement Activity TPT STORE LINK
Or have students sing a quiet song like this one.
“RED, GREEN AND WHITE” https://youtu.be/tUm2_-XtNf0
Or this song sung to “Twinkle”.
Christmas Action Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star”.
Christmas Action Song: “Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star” & Literacy Activities TPT STORE LINK
Sometimes I’ll use a scarf movement after a dance song. As the children put their scarves away I’ll have them line up.
Use the YouTube video or get this resource for your classroom. https://youtu.be/zVTdqtHBDCA
Holiday Scarf Activity, Brain Break, Creative Movement Activity TPT STORE LINK
In addition to these activities there are holiday award printables, a rhythm game for upper elementary and “The Twelve Days of Christmas” activity to create your own school song version.
These are available to our Subscribers.
I’m hoping that these Fun Holiday music and movement activities help you have fun and keep students engaged during the month of December.
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Hi there! I’m Sandra, one of the authors behind Sing Play Create. My goal is to provide teachers with interactive resources and activities to improve the effectiveness of their teaching and enhance student learning.
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