One of my favorite parts of being a music teacher is doing seasonal activities. We’re going to talk about some of my favorite elementary music winter activities. I’ve got a list of videos, composition activities, books, and more, so be sure to read on!
YouTube Rhythm Videos
If you don’t follow Music With Mrs. Gibbs on YouTube, you’re missing out! She has the best rhythm videos that my kids love! These videos are some of my favorite winter activities for elementary music! I use these videos for assessments all the time- just give students drums or rhythm sticks and watch them play the patterns. Rhythm Snowball Splat is one of my favorite elementary music winter lessons! Students will pretend to throw snowballs at the screen and then play the rhythm patterns that show up. She has rhythmic videos for just about every season, and it’s one of the first channels I check out when I want a cute video to review rhythms.
Another channel on YouTube you need to be following is Musication. My kids LOVE their boomwhacker videos! Their favorites are: Ghostbusters, Skeleton Dance, and Africa. I use a lot of these videos to teach about sharps and flats, chords, and verse and chorus. Some of the videos even have a melody and bass line, so you can divide the kids up into four different groups if your kids can handle the independence. It’s a great challenge, and one my kids love taking on! There are some really great holiday songs to add to your elementary music winter activities list!
Also, this may be common knowledge, but I had no idea how to hold boomwhackers when I first started teaching. I realize that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true! I just gave kids the boomwhackers and asked them not to slam them on the ground. Which they did. The large ones bend after being used like that, but I didn’t even think about there being a different way to play them. Instead of having kids hold them at the end, have them hold them in the middle and tap the whole boomwhacker on the ground instead of just the end. It sounds better, plus it keeps the boomwhacker from denting!
Creating a Song from a Poem
Using poetry to create a melody is another fun elementary music winter activity (though you can adapt this for any season!) Students will likely be working on poetry in their classrooms at some point, and the teachers would love it if you did a little cross curricular activity! Have students bring a piece of their poetry, or you can find some poetry for them to use. I would recommend choosing shorter poems. Students will take that poem and create a melody to go with it. Have them perform their melodies for the class.
They could transfer that to xylophones and perform for the class. You could even have them record it on Seesaw, FlipGrid, or your learning management system (if your district policy allows) so that parents can see their performance!
Books
The Bear Snores On is an adorable book about animals that escape the cold in a hibernating bear’s cave. I use this book to help teach dynamics and steady beat. To extend it, we sing the song “Grizzly Bear” after the book says “but the bear snores on.” After we read this book, I’ll usually do a rhythm race with these winter flashcards. You can make it more of a challenge by having the students race as an animal, so rather than walking, they bear crawl or hop like a rabbit!
The Nutcracker is a beautiful book that I read to my K-2 kids every year. We read the story, then watch the ballet or movie. I use this lesson to talk about ballet, especially how boys and girls both can do ballet. We also talk about how music and dance tell a story, different instrument families, and music vocabulary.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell is such a cute book to add instruments to. This lesson is loud, but a favorite with kindergarten and first graders! You’ll divide different instruments up between the class. You can have students share, but I always just gave every student an instrument and had doubles of several of them. Each instrument will have an item teh old lady swallows assigned to it, and when you sing that item in the book, that instrument gets to play their special part.
Naturally, students will want to play all of the instruments. I handle that by going through the book twice (you can have a student read it the second time if you do this with second grade!) Then I have them pass the instruments in a big circle, giving them about 30 seconds of free time on a new instrument. They get to play several instruments, but it doesn’t take as long.
What are your favorite elementary music winter lessons? I would love to chat about winter songs or activities, so be sure to find me on Instagram (@caffeinated.j) and DM me so we can chat!
