December can feel a bit overwhelming for both music teachers and students alike. With the busyness of the season, I love to carve out quiet moments in every class for winter listening lessons. There is such a rich repertoire of classical music to use this time of year. From Anderson to Vivaldi – there are listening activities for every grade!
Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson
My friend, Elizabeth, from Organized Chaos has some fantastic ways to use Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson, in the music room. I especially love her cup song routine and use it with my own students!
Sleigh Ride is also a great piece to talk about the power of timbre and how different instruments can evoke a sound or mood. We listen to Sleigh Ride and talk about the four instruments Leroy Anderson used to depict the sound of the horse & sleigh. I’ve got a great listening activity available on TeachersPayTeachers for Sleigh Ride – perfect for elementary classes!
Linus & Lucy by Vince Guaraldi
Linus & Lucy is one of the many pieces written by Vince Guaraldi for the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love using the piece in different grade levels for different activities. In K-1, the song provides a great, upbeat piece for paper plate ice skating. (You haven’t seen magic in a music room until you’ve let your little ones go paper plate ice skating!)
With my older students, this piece is perfect for introducing Rondo Form! It’s also a lovely piece to introduce a jazz trio! You can find my listening activities for Linus & Lucy here.
The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky
As a music teacher, December and The Nutcracker are synonymous. I can’t imagine not using one of the songs in my instruction at some point throughout the month! Whether studying genres of music, form, or movement – there is something for every grade level in The Nutcracker. I wrote a blog post about using the music from The Nutcracker for movement activities.
Another fun activity for The Nutcracker is to use the Musication channel on YouTube for boomwhacker play-a-longs. My students love playing the Trepak & Sugar Fairies and I love the visual the videos provide of melodic direction!
Winter by Antonio Vivaldi
My friend, Jennifer, from The Yellow Brick Road has some fabulous ideas to use with Vivaldi’s Winter. From listening lessons, timbre lessons, and movement – she has ideas that will engage and instruct your students!
I especially love the video she posted with the symbolic notation of Winter. It’s such a great visual for students to see melodic contour and how parts are layered on one another to create harmony!
Jingle Bells by Harry Connick Jr.
Jingle Bells is another beloved winter song popular during the holidays. My students are always amazed when I remind them that it’s just a song about traveling in the winter – not a Christmas song!
Depending on the age of your students, there are many things you can do with this song. I recently wrote a blog post about some of the ways I teach using this song. You can read that post here. Another fun thing to do is to listen to other versions of the song. I love to have my students compare and contrast the original version to Harry Connick Jr.’s version of Jingle Bells. It’s a great rendition arranged for big band. I love that we can discuss everything so many musical concepts – melody, genres, ensembles, improvisation and more!
Do you have a favorite listening lesson or activity for the month of December? Leave me a comment below with your favorite pieces for December!
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