December Class Favorites

Written By Joanna Hughes

Oh boy, here we go! I feel like I just sat down to write my October class favorites post. How are we already to December?!

December is such a magical time in the music room, but it’s also an incredibly hectic and harried time. If you’re like me, you’re trying to get everyone and everything (yes, I have to organize all the details for these big events) prepared for their winter concert(s), but also want to make sure you spend time on a plethora of incredible music activities connected to December celebrations.

Be warned: this list is long and there’s no way I can hit all these activities in the three weeks before break—but it’s nice to have options.

My students have very strong opinions about their favorite December activities and I use that to my advantage. I remind them that the more on-task they are, the more we get to do. I always start with concert rehearsal (I don’t want to run out of time for that) and encourage them to keep their focus and work hard so that we can move on to holiday activities. That motivation works well for my students and keeps them engaged and behaving in class during a very exciting time of year.

Don’t forget to shop the 20% off sale in my TPT store tomorrow and Tuesday, November 27-28 and score all your holiday activities at a discount! Everything will be on sale.

HANUKKAH

  • Hands down. This is my MOST REQUESTED song of the entire year. I have students asking me to sing it in September, March, May. Doesn’t matter. They are OBSESSED. Puppy for Hanukkah. All I can say is, “Thank you, Daveed Diggs.”

  • The Dreidel Song I do a lot of different activities with this. First, we sing the song. Then we sing it SIX times through, but only sing on specific words:

    • Whole song

    • Dreidel

    • Dreidel + Clay

    • Dreidel + Clay + Play

    • Dreidel + Clay + Play + I

    • Whole song

      • Once they’ve done this a few times, I give them tennis balls and they have to sing/bounce the balls on the specific words. So.Much.Fun.

  • Expanding on The Dreidel Song I show this video by the Maccabeats. At this point, they know the song well and love listening to the ways they play with genre. Also a great way to talk about acapella singing.

  • I like the songs and activities in the Gameplan books: Burn Little Candles, Hanukkah is Here, Zemer Atik, It’s Hanukkah Tonight, Dance for Hanukkah. They are a mix of songs and dances and several have instrumental components as well. Pre-Covid this was a lot of what I did (so many excellent digital resources now).

In terms of Hanukkah activities, I haven’t always found a ton of authentic ones, so I decided to make some myself. Here are some you can find in my TPT store:

CHRISTMAS

  • Much like Pumpkin Bones and Thanksgiving at Our House, the song Cray Cray Christmas is highly requested and a total ear worm. It’s from Quaver, but you can find it here on YouTube. I typically play this as they’re lining up and getting ready to leave—keeps them engaged to the last second of class!

  • The Nutcracker Frankly, you could spend the whole year on this. Narrowing it down always feels like an impossible choice. I always share a synopsis of the story and a little history about Tchaikovsky before picking and choosing activities.

    • Trepak is the one song I gravitate towards each year. I have so many awesome activities that work with this song!

      I like to start off with this video of the dance from the Boston Ballet to get them excited about the piece. I love that this version highlights diverse male dancers. The second they hear the song they instantly recognize it from “Home Alone” (although technically it’s a parody of the song, but…) and I show them this clip of “We slept in!” (18-38 sec. mark) before we embark on the following activities:

      • There’s a dance from the 4th grade Gameplan book that gets the kids moving and is such a hit that I always incorporate it. It’s fast (probably under two minutes) and it will leave your students out of breath. It’s the perfect warm up for slow mornings or a stupendous movement break when they have the wiggles.

      • This percussion play along uses drums, tambourines, rhythm sticks, triangles and cymbals. They ask for this on repeat. There are two levels so it works well for littles and slightly older.

      • This is a different percussion play along that uses sticks, shakers, and tambourines or jingle bells.

      • Feeling Boomwhacker-y? This Trepak play along will serve you well!

    • When we were on Zoom I shared Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker in Harlem by Music with Ms. P. which has some fun drumming patterns interspersed with the story. Like I said, there are sooooooo many Nutcracker activities—these are just the ones I can carve out time for.

  • Keeping with the connection to “Home Alone,” this Boomwhacker play along of Somewhere in My Memory is not too hard and a fun way to add instruments to your December activities (without needing lots of rehearsal time). My students love this version.

  • Christmas Centers, Games, Recorder, Notation, and Compositions, oh my! I’ve got so many Christmas resources in my store! I created this Celebrate Christmas in the Music Room Growing Bundle—a collection of activities that continues to expand. Meaning: regardless of what you pay when you purchase, any new activities added after you’ve bought are yours for FREE! For example, I added four new resources this year. Anyone who bought last year, got them for free!

    • There are (currently) nine products in this bundle, but I have to say, I’m particularly partial to the stocking stuffer game! It’s kind of like “Feed the Monster”—play the rhythm (or note on recorder, depending on the version you’re using) and add the present to the stocking. So cute.

Recorder Stocking Stuffer Game for Centers (B-A-G-C-D-E)

  • There are also games like Christmas Write the Room, I Have…Who Has…, Jolly Old St. Nicholas on recorder (Google Slides with measure by measure guidance), Christmas Compositions, Christmas Rhythm Matching Games for Google Slides, and MORE!

  • Holiday Fun from the Kindergarten Gameplan book: I literally have 4th graders that ask to do this song:

    • “Tis the season for holiday fun, but something is missing can you guess which one?” (all sing and pat the beat)

    • Spread out the ten holiday cards upside down; a new student removes one card each round and the student turning the cards right side up has to figure out which cards are missing (cards are holiday symbols: menorah, Star of David, Christmas tree, Santa, etc.)

    • The first student has it the easiest—they only have to determine the one card missing; each consecutive student has to remember multiple ones. Good luck to the last kid (I always offer the “phone a friend” option).

KWANZAA

  • I usually start with a read aloud teaching about the holiday and ask for students to share their family’s traditions.

  • I and my students adore this Kwanzaa Song from Quaver. We play and sing along (they usually like to follow and try to do some of the movements).

Remember when I said December was overflowing?! I wasn’t joking! All these activities AND concert prep!!! December is a LOT.

I never get to spend as much time on any of these activities as I would like and always have such a hard time picking and choosing!

So…what are YOUR plans this December?!

Good luck out there!
Joanna

Joanna Hughes
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