No matter where you live, the Nutcracker Ballet always seems to pop up around the winter holiday season. Maybe you are one of the schools that has a Nutcracker Ballet field trip every year, where one grade level travels to see the iconic ballet. Or maybe you just love using some of the seasonal music from The Nutcracker to bring a little holiday spirit to your elementary music classroom.
There are so many great reasons for a Nutcracker Ballet lesson. And this blog post is full of my favorite activities to try with your students. We will take some of the most famous songs from The Nutcracker and make them even more fun with movement, listening, coloring and more!
Who Wrote the Nutcracker Ballet
We can’t talk about The Nutcracker Ballet without talking about its composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Many of your students may be unfamiliar with who wrote The Nutcracker, so a short introduction is well worth your time.
A short biography page can help students learn a little bit about this famous composer, or you can go a little more in depth with a jigsaw activity (each group member learns and teaches a piece of the puzzle).
I love a good write the room activity. So I created one for my students all about The Nutcracker Ballet. Students get an introduction to the history of the ballet and fun facts. For example, did you know that the ballet was a flop during it’s initial premiere and that it wasn’t until Tchaikovsky retooled the music into The Nutcracker Suite that the music began to gain popularity?
The Nutcracker Ballet Plot
If you are going to really dive into a Nutcracker Ballet unit, you will want to make sure your students are familiar with the story. I always do this when preparing a class to go a see the ballet.
We listen to either a book or video version of The Nutcracker story. I have used this video before as it is nice and short, but still goes over the main plot points.
And speaking of plot, if you want to earn some bonus points you can add a little ELA into your lesson by dividing kids into groups afterwards and handing them story cards with the main events in the story. Students must put the events back in the correct order.
I used to do this to align with 2nd grade standards as my 2nd graders took an annual trip to the ballet. I’ve left the Common Core Standard below in case you are interested.
LAFS.2.RL.2.5 – Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
Nutcracker Ballet Lesson Plan Ideas
Alright, now the part we’ve been waiting for – the music activities! The Nutcracker has so many famous songs, it was hard to narrow it down. But here are some of my favorites for teaching my Nutcracker Ballet unit.
Nutcracker March
Probably one of the most recognizable songs from The Nutcracker is the March. In fact, I’ve wrote a separate blog post all about using The Nutcracker March in your lesson plans. And hands down, my favorite activity to do with this piece is a drum-along from Artie Almeida’s Kidstix.
I also love that this piece is a rondo, so we can talk about the easily recognizable form of the song too.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
This is another iconic piece your students have no doubt heard before. I find that this is a great piece for listening. Especially with the magical sounds of the celesta. I often have my students follow along with new pieces using listening maps.
They really help students follow along with a piece without getting lost and see things like form and timbre and more.
Chinese Dance
This piece is perfect for a fun little scarf dance activity. During the flute part, toss the scarf in the air and catch it. Then, during the pizzicato string section, do a bouncing/dabbing motion to match the rhythm. During the coda I would have them make circles going faster and faster (either standing and spinning in a circle, or just making a circle shape with their scarves if I didn’t feel they could handle spinning around in circles). When the music stops, they freeze and strike a pose.
Alternately, with older students, you could do a similar activity, but with a tennis ball. Toss and catch the tennis ball during the flute part. Then bounce it on the ground during the pizzicato. During the coda, keep dribbling. If they need a challenge they could dribble while spinning in a circle. You could also have them toss the ball to a partner instead of just tossing it in the air.
Russian Dance
If you are looking for an activity to get everyone’s heart rate up, this next one’s for you. This parachute activity to Trepak (aka Russian Dance) will have your students jumping and jogging and jamming out to this holiday hit.
Here’s the basic formula:
Part A – poof the parachute on the first beat of the first two measures (matching with the music). Then have them jog clockwise in a circle for the rest of the phrase. This will repeat several more times.
Part B – March inward 8 beats. Then shake the parachute 8 beats. March out 8 beats. Shake the parachute 8 beats.
During the interlude directly after Part B, have a small group of students run under the parachute to find a new spot. You can name this group ahead of time. Or simply call out some student names during the beginning of the interlude.
The song finishes with Part A again and the coda is basically a continuation of Part A, so you would just keep running in a circle until the end, when you could have students either strike a ballet pose or sit.
Dance of the Reed Flutes
Another activity I love to do when trying to dissipate some of that pre-holiday energy is giving students a listening glyph. Doing a couple movement activities and then bringing the tempo down a little with a listening glyph can be a great way to finish off class.
Listening glyphs look like a coloring sheet at first glance, but they are so much more. Students have to listen for musical elements and color the image based off what they hear.
Learn About Ballet
Another fun idea is to give students a brief introduction to ballet in general. I find this especially useful if we are going to be watching the ballet.
It takes away a lot of the giggles you would get from students unfamiliar with ballet. I once heard it explained that a lot of the time, when kids are giggling about something it is a nervous response to something they aren’t familiar with.
This really makes sense to me and has helped me shift from thinking students were just being disrespectful and realizing they just needed to be educated.
We talk about where ballet came from and why all the words are in French. Of course one of the most giggle inducing elements is the clothes that dancers (especially male dancers) wear, but when we compare it to the clothing worn by football and baseball players, it sort of clicks for them. Athletes need to be able to move. And ballet dancers are athletes.
To drive the point home, we usually try doing some of the basic positions of ballet. With an older group, you might even try doing a short barre workout. But with my 2nd graders, we usually do a simple one focused on just the 5 basic ballet positions. (I couldn’t find the one that I normally use but here is a similar one.)
Also, this is a great time for your students who take ballet to shine. They could help lead the class through the video of the five positions. Or talk about the exercises the ballet dancers do and how it is hard work.
So now you’ve got a whole line up of different activities to try out for your next Nutcracker Ballet Unit.
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