Looking for some ideas for your winter music lessons? I have five great winter music class activities ready to go for you. Whether you are looking for winter music activities to get your kids moving or listening activities to take a deep dive into a classical winter music piece, I am excited to share with you some of my favorite activities from my own music classroom.
Winter Music Activities for Kindergarten
Kindergarten music activities almost invariably involve movement for me. Those little bodies just need to move. And luckily, moving is a great way to learn music! Here are two of my favorite winter music lessons for kindergarten.
First Snow by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
First Snow by Trans-Siberian Orchestra is an excellent classic rock song to inject some energy into your classroom. If you have never heard of Trans-Sisberian Orchestra before, I highly recommend checking them out. Not only do they do some great rock and rock takes on classic Christmas songs such as Russian Dance by Tchaikocksy, but they also have some great rocking versions of Beethoven classics and others.
One thing I like about this song is that it is winter themed, not holiday themed. It can work in January or February as well as December. Also, the beginning does such a great job of setting the mood of a gentle first snowfall (although the music starts rocking pretty hard after that!).
I have a scarf movement routine that I like to do with my kindergarten and first grade. It is ideal for the week right before a break, when students have a little extra energy they need to get out.
Feliz Navidad
This winter activity to Feliz Navidad is always a hit with my students. My Spanish speaking students love to have a little bit of pop music in their own language, and everybody recognizes the song and can sing and dance along. With all these things going for me, it isn’t hard to sell a dance and play activity for this classic Christmas song.
We use this song to learn about:
- ABA extended form
- Go and stop (verse and refrain)
- Classroom instrument recognition and correct use (maracas)
- Steady beat
Winter Music Lessons for Your Middle Grades
Troika Winter Movement Activity
If you are looking for a winter lesson that allows for movement, classical music and that isn’t a Christmas song, then I have a music activity for you!
I have used Troika with a range of age groups from kindergarten to first grade and second grade (maybe even third grade). In its most basic form, students get to move to show the form of this fun winter song by Prokofiev.
But I have also added:
- focus on big and little beat (prance to the big beat, snowflakes to the little beat)
- echo rhythms (during the waving and cold sections, switch them out for rhythm echos)
- read rhythms (same as above, but with rhythm flashcards for students to read)
You could also have different groups in charge of different movements for each section and have the sleigh ride section be for all students. Again, the only limit is your own imagination!
Winter Skating Activity
I love the song Skating by Vince Guaraldi. First of all, it’s nice to get different genres represented, even in holiday music, so having a jazz trio is a nice change of pace.
To introduce this song, I would probably have students listen along with my listening map.
We could make some observations about the form and other things that we hear in the music. Then it’s time to learn some movement. Since we are listening to Skating, of course the movement is going to be … skating!
If you’ve never done paper plate skating in your classroom, your are in for a treat. Each student gets two paper plates that will be their skates. Students stand with paper plates underfoot and do the following motions.
Movement Activity to Skating by Vince Guaraldi
Part A: Skate to the steady beat
Part B: Spin one direction, then the other
Piano solo: Skates become snowflakes. Students take them off and do floating snowflake motions of their choice around the room
During the transition (repeated piano part with downward melodic direction) students transition back to wearing skates
Winter Music Lesson Ideas for Older Grades
If you are trying to focus on musical concepts with your older students, such as form, musical timbres or dynamics, a listening map is a great way to visualize many of those elusive elements and make them clear to your students. Here are some of the listening maps for music that I have and some suggestions on how to use them in your classroom.
Winter Listening Maps
Here is my latest set of Winter Listening Maps.
This set contains listening maps for:
- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy – Peter Tchaikovsky
- First Snow – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- Skating – Vince Guaraldi
- Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson
- Troika – Sergei Prokofiev
Listening maps are a great springboard for movement activities – like this fun movement activity I created for Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson.
Winter Music Lesson to Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson
Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson is a classic that most students will recognize. And although it is often associated with Christmas, it really isn’t a Christmas song. In fact, he wrote in the summer during a heat wave (fun fact)!
I like to use this song to get my older kids moving – because big kids are sometime just little kids in big bodies. They want to have fun too! I put some rhythm reading and improv into the mix and – BAM! – you’ve got winter music lesson ready to go.
Sleigh Ride Movements
Intro: wait
A section: ride sleigh around the room.
B section: echo rhythms or read rhythm cards – depending on your students’ needs
C section: improv rhythms (I usually do a rhythm and they have to improv a response).
Nutcracker Ballet Bundle
I know this post if mostly focused on winter songs that aren’t Christmas songs. But I would be remiss to not mention my winter lessons on the Nutcracker Ballet. The Nutcracker Ballet Bundle is one of my TOP SELLERS – especially around the holidays. It just makes a perfect set of activities for that week or two right before winter break.
The bundle has SO MUCH good stuff.
- 8 listening maps to music from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky
- 8 listening glyphs (guided coloring)
- Tchaikovsky biography activity pack
- Nutcracker Ballet Write the Room Activity
- Nutcracker Story Comprehension Worksheets and Activities
It contains listening maps and listening glyph coloring pages for:
- March from the Nutcracker
- Spanish Dance
- Arabian Dance
- Chinese Dance
- Russian Dance
- Dance of the Reed Flutes
- Waltz of the Flowers
- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
You can learn more about my Nutcracker Lessons in this blog post: Nutcracker Ballet: 7 Awesome Ideas To Add To Your Nutcracker Lesson Plan.
How To Use Listening Maps in Your Classroom
While there are infinite ways to use a listening map in your music class, here are some of the main ways I have used them. Comment to this post if you have a fun suggestion of your own. I would love to hear it!
First Glance
I often use my listening maps in music as a first glance for students to wrap their head around the form and other musical elements happening in the song. This makes it SO MUCH easier to reference different sections if we want to discuss what we heard or add on movement to different sections, etc.
Listening for Specific Music Elements
I have often created worksheets based on my listening maps. In fact, as I am writing this blog post I am in the middle of revamping all my listening maps to include several active listening worksheets to go with the listening maps. Hopefully by the time of this post, all of the listening maps mentioned in this post will also contain some really helpful worksheets for active listening. If not, I would still make the purchase. You get free access to all upgrades as I upload them (and I make sure to send a notification when I’ve done mejor updates, so you won’t even have to check back!). Nobody has time for that!
Framework for Movement
It is so much easier to get a feel for the sections and main events in a song when they have been visualized on a listening map. Then I can create movements for the class. Or often I can create lessons where the students create the movements themselves.
Close Read
Does your district do close reading? I know that the district I used to work in was doing a HUGE push for close reads. I was resistant at first because although I am a team player, I didn’t really want to have the focus in my lessons be sitting down and reading a text. Not very musical. But what if I told you that a close read doesn’t have to be done with traditional text? You can use the MUSIC ITSELF as a text to analyze. What a game changer!
If you are interested in learning about using music as a text for a close read (or if your admin is making you do it), check out this blog post where I go into detail on how to do a close read lesson in music class. It honestly completely changed my views on close reading in music class.
Looking for More Winter Music Class Activities?
Here are a couple blog posts you might enjoy:
9 Favorite Go-To Holiday Music Activities for Elementary Students
Nutcracker Ballet: 7 Awesome Ideas To Add To Your Nutcracker Lesson Plan
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