In Episode 40 we're diving into a treasure trove of engaging lesson plans designed specifically for elementary music teachers gearing up for the festive season. All the featured lesson plans are conveniently available on my shop, offering a stress-free resource for educators looking to keep their students captivated in the weeks leading up to the holiday break.

I highlight my enchanting bundle that goes along with my adorable song, "Everyone Wants to be a Reindeer". This song and the accompanying lesson plan promise to engage your students and get them singing and playing instruments while exploring walking and running notes.

For those who'd like to spend some time playing holiday music with their students on the ukulele, the "Holiday Ukulele Workshop" takes center stage, You'll get a delightful hands-on experience for students and teachers alike. There are 7 songs, plus a bonus, to help make learning to play the ukulele an accessible and enjoyable holiday adventure.

The podcast also talks about 2 dynamic storybook lesson plans: "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" and "Rudy’s Windy Christmas," You'll also find 2 super fun lesson plans with all the manipulatives your students love for The Nutcracker. "Waltz of the Flowers, a Meter of 3 Adventure" and "The Russian Dance - a Basketball Activity". These plans offer a perfect blend of festive cheer and educational exploration, ensuring a smooth transition back to the classroom after the holiday break.

Tune in to discover these holiday hacks and unlock a wealth of easy-peasy music-making activities that will add joy and musical magic to the December days in any elementary music classroom.

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What we talked about:

The Nutcracker with Macaulay Culkin

Waltz of the Flowers Video   

Waltz of the Flowers Video - Children dancing

Lesson Plan Links:

Everyone Wants to be a Reindeer Bundle

Holiday Ukulele Workshop

Russian Dance bouncy ball activity

The Back from Break Song Bundle

Bear Stays Up for Christmas lesson plan

Rudy’s Windy Christmas lesson plan

Waltz of the Flowers - a Meter of 3 Adventure lesson plan (part of The Nutcracker Movement Bundle)

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you an elementary music teacher who's frustrated and overwhelmed? I'm Jeanette Shorey, a happy music teacher who loves teaching every day. But it wasn't long ago I was in your shoes. Join me Wednesdays to help you find happy in your music classroom. I don't know about you, but the holiday season tends to be one of my favorites.

favorite times to develop lesson plans, to do lesson plans. And I was telling my co teacher today that I kind of broke one of my rules. My rule is the last couple of weeks before any holiday, when the kids are going cray cray, and it is just really challenging to keep behavior managed. I. I usually don't teach anything new, and I kind of didn't do that this week.

So I've been teaching meter of three, and I'm not going to tell you it's been terrible because it hasn't, but it's definitely been a little bit challenging. So what I want to tell you is. My tip for the day is if you are struggling to teach something new and it is not working because your kiddos are cray cray, then what I would do instead is I would do review things and I would do things that are really fun and really easy and don't require a lot of thinking from you or from your kiddos.

And that is how I would run the next couple of weeks, because also, I would bet you that you are also developing a concert and rehearsing for a concert. I know one of my co teachers is rehearsing three mornings a week, so he gets there early, and he's, you know, trying to do all the things, and he did a Veteran's Day.

program. And because he did a Veterans Day program, he's only got like a teeny tiny little bit of time to do his concert prep. So I know it is a really, really stressful time of year. You've got all the things going on. You've got your concert. You've got your regular classes. Hello. We still have to teach regular classes, right?

And so that is what I'm going to recommend, recommend is my tip for the day is don't do anything that is too complicated. I have for you seven holiday lesson plans and they are all adorable. Now I am going to tell you I was not really good about developing anything for Hanukkah. And I apologize because I know there are lots of people that, and not that I don't usually do it, but I just didn't put it in here, but I am going to make it my business to develop a couple of lesson plans for Hanukkah in the coming weeks.

And I promise you that I will share some of them. So these ones are all, a couple of them are around the nutcracker, and a couple of them, there are two storybook lessons, and then there is a really nice ukulele. Workshop that if you haven't heard about that, there is that as well, and it is not too late to do that.

So let me tell you about what I've been doing this week. So I am using meter of three. It's a meter of three lesson plan for waltz of the flowers. And next week we are going to watch a version of the nutcracker because my other two music teachers are doing that and Hey, why not? We're gonna, you know, talk about All the fun facts about Tchaikovsky.

And we are going to do, um, Macaulay Cochran's version of the Nutcracker. So I will link to that in the show notes, but let me tell you what we're doing in preparation. So we're talking about meter three and weeks ago, we did meter of two. And let me give you a little, a little. You know, taste of what we did for meter of two.

So we did, I don't know who it was that gave me this idea. It was not my original idea, but. We did meter of two and we marched around the room and we marched around well first we did Clap and Pat using strong and weak beat and we talked about strong and weak beat because I was doing this with my first graders I do not do strong and weak beat with pre k I do I kind of touch on it with kindergarten, but really I get really heavy duty into strong and weak beat and meter starting in first grade and so we took off one shoe and And we all marched around the room with the shoe foot and the sock foot and we talked about which one was louder and that way which one was the strong beat and we talked about all of that good stuff.

So I do a little bit of a review on that and I say, Oh, do you remember when we did this and la la la, you know, all that stuff. Then we go into meter three. And what I'm doing first is I am showing them this beautiful version of the waltz that is linked in my lesson plan. And actually there's two versions of waltzes linked in my lesson plans.

One is for A Million Years and one is for Titanium. And they are beautiful, beautiful versions, professional waltzers. And so, you know, I just want them to see that there is waltzing and what it looks like. And then I play that music again and what I did is I looked up slow waltzes because waltz of the flowers is way too fast to try and teach any steps to so we'd and I don't do like a full fledged waltz I'm teaching first grade right so I don't We do just big step, little, little.

So we'll do big, little, little, and then we'll go into big tip toe. Now my first graders are having a challenge with doing all three of those. So what I say to them is if you only want to do the big step, as long as you do the big step on beat one, then you can do that. And I tell them the entire time we do this for maybe a minute, I'll go big tip toe.

Big tip toe. And as we're listening, I don't put the video on again, but as we're listening to the music, we walk around and we do some movement. Then the next step is I like to do some fun facts about Tchaikovsky and. After we do our fun facts, I have quaver. So sometimes I use quaver for that. I also have music play online.

So you know, you've got different options for fun facts or you can look up your own and you can do some fun facts. Then I play a version of waltz of the flowers. There are two of them that I really like. One of them is about, I don't know, two hour, two, two hours, two minutes and 30 something seconds. And it is a children's version.

And then there's also an adult version that is longer. So for my pre k and it's ballet, it's, you know, they're, they're actually performing the waltz of the flowers. So I will show them the waltz of the flowers and we'll talk about how fast it is and how we're just going to use the strong beat, but we're going to whisper all three beats in our head.

And we'll be like, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. And then what we do is we do like a clap, pat, pat, clap, pat, pat. And after that I play. Another version of it. So it really depends on for my first graders. We are I'm doing this activity with kinder pre K and first grade and my first graders. We are doing like a 6.

5 minute version, which I have also linked to in the description. Show notes, but also in the lesson plan. So the that's the version depends on pre k. It's too much for them to go for that long and we're doing some scarf movements. And in the lesson plan, I have also linked to a video of me and my students doing this scarf movement.

So we're just doing the scarf movement. On the first beat on the strong beat and it is super fun And my kids have been really really enjoying it and I am going to tell you that because They are so captivated by watching these people do the waltz and then by watching the people, and I don't play along, I play maybe 30 seconds of the video, and they are totally captivated because the dancers are just incredible.

So that is Waltz of the Flowers. While we are On that subject, let's go on to my Russian dance bouncy ball activity. So I love to steal some equipment from the P. E. teacher. And one of the things I love to steal is bouncy balls or basketballs. And in this case, we're using but basketballs. And if you don't have a class set of basketballs and you, you could use kickballs or any kind of.

But don't call it ball. You have to call it the specific ball because otherwise you get giggle giggle giggle even with my little ones, you know, so you want to, you want to be careful to, to specify a certain kind of ball and not just let's get out our balls because That doesn't work really well. We'll just say and so let me back up a little bit because I wanted to tell you on Saturday night I don't I must have been like Dreaming about my lesson plan for Russian dance because I'm really excited to do this with my first graders but I was like I really want to do something with pre k and so what I did is I had this dream about What I was going to do with pre K.

So pre K on, um, it's like what? And I may, I'm probably going to be out of, um, out of tune because I didn't call it up to, to get the, um, the key before. So. But it, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, right? So the first beat is going to be a jump. So it's going to be, jump to it.

And then we're gonna turn around in a circle

and it's gonna be 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. So I'm not gonna let them spin. They're gonna just step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step. Then we do it again, of course, because it repeats. And then when it gets to the part that's da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. On that part, they are gonna walk around like penguins.

And they're just going to walk to the steady beat. So we're getting a little steady beat in there. We're getting some fun. We are not really talking about it. It's pre k. I don't do a lot of talking. Barely any talking in pre k. I mean, if I do like three sentences the whole time I'm in there, that's a lot.

So that is what I'm doing with pre k and probably with kindergarten. Now, you're probably going to ask yourself, Okay, Jeannette. Um, my first graders can't catch. So that's what I'm going to tell you what we're going to do with the bouncy balls or the basketballs is we are not going to stand up and bounce them.

If I had fourth and fifth graders, which I have done this with my fourth and fifth graders as well, we do a dribble. I'm sorry. We do, we do just a bounce like. What's the next move? And then they pass it back and forth. And then you do it again. And then on the part on that part, they're going to pass it around in the circle.

So what I tell them to do is I tell them to pass it in front. So they pass and then they pick up, then they pass and then they pick up. So they pass it. to the person on their right and we practice that first, um, with nothing. So I'll just have them put their hand in front of the person on their right and I'll tell them you have to put it right in front of them or they're not going to get in time because it's fast, right?

And so they pass, pick up, pass, pick up. And they never pass it into the other person's hands. They put it on the floor in front of them. So that is the way it goes. I have a PowerPoint on my shop that is super cute. It's, you know, all in the, the Christmassy colors and it's a form lesson and there's a teacher key.

And then we also, I've got the notes written out. So I've got all the notes written out. So if you wanted to do that, you could do that. So those are two activities that we are doing with The Nutcracker. So kind of fun. We've got Waltz of the Flowers and we've got Russian Dance. Now, let me tell you a little bit about my holiday ukulele workshop.

So a couple weeks ago, before Thanksgiving, I had a live VIP session. You could purchase the holiday ukulele workshop by itself. Or you could do the VIP option. The VIP option was you got to attend live and I walked you through everything and we did kind of a play along and it was a lot of fun. We really had a great time.

So what I did is I recorded that and then I also recorded the. The original training and I give you tips and on on how to play and on how to teach and then along with the workshop, which is a training, you also get access to posters that you can print out for your students, you get access to the music that you can print out for your students, you get the PowerPoint, the presentation, whatever you want to call it, I'm designing it.

Everything in Canva at this point, you get all of that. And included is Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And I have a little dreidel, Frosty the Snowman, Feliz Navidad. Grandma got run over by a reindeer. I know that's not everybody's favorite, but I put it in there because my students love it.

And then we have, we wish you a Merry Christmas. And there is a bonus in there, Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah. So there's a couple of Hanukkah songs. And this is for ukulele. So I train you on how to teach the students all the songs and you can find that in the show notes. And I will link to that that you if you wanted to grab that, it is not too late to grab that.

It's pretty easy. It's about an hour. 30 minute training. So the play along Um, is longer than that, but the actual training is about 30 minutes, so it's pretty quick and you get access to a lot of good stuff in there. Then we have our, one of my favorites because it's a, it's a cute little song that I wrote.

I'm going to just play a little bit of it for you.

So that is Everyone Wants to Be a Reindeer and I don't know, I just, um, I think a couple years ago I was looking for a reindeer song and I was just like, you know what, I'm going to write one and I'll see you guys I wrote this really cute little song and it has the reindeer and then it's got arctic hare and it's got the penguin and the polar bear and the snow fox so you get to talk about some of the animals that live in the north and why they are all white because all but the penguin is completely white because they have to hide and stay safe so that is kind of cool.

And then we talk about running notes and walking notes. So that is my lesson plan. That is my skill and we don't spend a lot of time on it, but you know, you've got T T T T T T T T T T T T T T. So there are, there is a presentation as part of this bundle. I will link to the video if you just want to play it with your kids, because there, there are notes.

you know, the whole thing is written out. So if you just wanted to play it with your kids, it's kind of a fun thing to do. And you can talk about running notes and walking notes, the difference between them, you could have your students do run and run and walk. Walk so they could actually walk and run through it and then they can use their drums and their jingle bells if you are playing with little kids I would give everybody a jingle bell and you play the drum or vice versa because with littler ones you know pre k kindergarten they don't do as well with switching back and forth but if you have a really savvy group of kindergartners you could totally do that as well so that is everyone wants to be a reindeer and you I just love it if I do say so myself.

Then I have two storybook lessons for you. So the first storybook lesson is a brand new lesson plan. I just wrote it this week and it is called Bear Stays Up for Christmas. And it does have a repeating pattern, but I decided that what I wanted to do with it as I wanted to use it for loud and. soft and I'm using it for my kinder and my pre k.

And so what happens here is first of all, there's a finger play and the finger play is super cute. And I linked to a video in the lesson plan to show you how to do the finger play. And the finger play goes, I'm just going to tell you a little bit of it. Little mouse, little mouse. skitters along in bear's lair.

Wake up, wake, little mouse shouts. Arctic hare, arctic hare, hops along to bear's lair. Wake up, wake up, arctic hare shouts. So that is the finger play. It goes through all eight of the animals that are his friends. And you'll notice there are some movement words in there. So we start out with the finger play and then we go into the story.

And if you have time to read the story, just to delight in it. I love to do that first. And I have the students just, um, shout, wake up, wake up. Every time it seems like the bear. Is sleepy and needs to wake up because what happens is they've woken the bear out of hibernation so you get a chance to talk about hibernation too and they are trying to get him to stay up and then it ends up that they fall asleep and he does all the Christmas stuff like he wraps all the gifts and he he does all the the making of the presents for them and all that kind of stuff so when they fall asleep we go you Toe, be quiet, tip toe, be quiet.

And if I was doing this with first grade, I would have them, once we got to the drum part, I would have them play quiet as TT or double eighth notes. But with my kindergarten and my pre K, I'm just having them play the steady beat because the quiet is a little bit, it kind of sneaks up on them and they're not doing well with it.

But again, if you have a savvy group of kindergartners, you could totally have them do quiet as a TT. So they are going to, we're going to read the story for delight and we're going to read the, we're going to clap the wake up, wake up or shout the wake up, wake up and tiptoe, be quiet. We can just whisper that.

And then we're going to read it. We're going to take a picture walk through and we're going to point out when to say those tiny rhythms if you haven't. Already done that if you just read it and you're in a picture walk means that you're going to walk through the story and show the pictures Pretty easy, right?

And then you're going to pass out instruments. I love to talk to my students about how to play softly on the drum and how to play loudly on the drum. And we play softly by bouncing low and we play loudly by bouncing high. Or we can do, I like to sometimes, depending on the students, have them tap one finger in the middle of the drum for, for soft and have them, um, I, I call them their tapping fingers and I have them rub their tapping fingers together.

And they have to play their tapping fingers. Now that is something that I remind my students literally every time is don't forget to use your tapping fingers. And then we have rest position and I remind them every time to get in rest position. So we read the story again and we play the instruments. And then if there is time, I have linked to some winter music in the lesson plan.

And that will take you to some winter music that I think works really well. And then you're going to go through and you're going to show the students all the PowerPoint words or the presentation words skitter and hop and float and wiggle snuggle and trudge and stoop and droop and I would not go into a lot of explanation with the littles if you have second grade because this Lesson plan would work really nicely for second grade and possibly even third grade because your third graders are, you know, they haven't made that journey into being slightly bigger kids yet.

So they may enjoy this one as well, especially because of all the movement words there. There's a lot of like more savvy movement words. So you can demo. The different movement words, or if you have a little extra time and you want your students to so boys and girls, what would it look like if you were wiggling?

And then you would go through with the music. And you would read each word and they would get to skitter and then they would get to hop, et cetera, et cetera. So that is a really fun lesson plan. It has kept my students totally captivated. It has been amazing. You don't even have to use all the movement words, but they love the movement words.

Or if your kids have the wiggles, you can do the movement words first, right after the finger play and then go on from there. So that is that one. Then I have one that. It's called Rudy's Windy Christmas by Helen Bao and Ben Mantle, and this one is absolutely hysterical. It's all about a reindeer who Santa is eating his meal before He has to go out for Christmas Eve and Mrs.

Santa has given him brussel sprouts and he doesn't like brussel sprouts, so he feeds all the brussel sprouts to Rudy and if you have ever eaten brussel sprouts, you will know that you They make you a little pootie. We'll just say so that is what this story is all about and Obviously you have to be careful Depends on the kiddos.

I did have some I had a special ed teacher A couple years ago who was like, please please Jeanette Do not read that story to them again because they were all about it. It was so funny, but they were trying to get away from the bathroom word. So, but it is really hysterical. I like to use my best low santa voice, my best hi mrs claus voice, and my best silly reindeer rudy voice.

And what you do is you go through this and I like to sing each of the pages to the tune of Jingle Bells. So we go through it and we just sing it. And there is a repeating pattern and you're going to want to stop and point that out to your kiddos. And then you're going to show the students the pattern to play either on non pitched percussion, or if you want to do this with your bigger kids, you can do it on the xylophone and there is walking up and walking down and there is a repeating pattern that students can do.

I mean there is a lot of fun with this lesson plan. So that is All of the lesson plans that I am recommending for December. And as I said earlier, I will definitely do some Hanukkah lesson plans as well. Because I know we have lots and lots of people that celebrate Hanukkah. When I taught in Florida, I would say like half of my students celebrated Hanukkah.

So, definitely important to celebrate that holiday as well. And if you have other holidays that you are celebrating in your school, then please feel free to reach out to me, Jeanette at storiesthatsing. net. Let me know what else you are celebrating, and I will see if I can't come up with some lesson plans.

Or, maybe I'll talk to my good friend Daria, because she's got some great multicultural lesson plans, and I know she's got some good stuff coming up for December. So, everyone wants to be a reindeer. The Holiday Ukulele Workshop, the Russian Dance and the Waltz of the Flowers lesson plans, the Bear Stays Awake for Christmas, and Rudy's Windy Christmas.

Those are all of the lesson plans that we talked about today. Next week, we're going to take a deep dive into exactly what to do, because I know we talked about it just a little bit, what to do for those couple of weeks. Before the break, and then I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what to do after the break, because I don't know about you, but I've got like a couple of random days, and so we're going to talk just a little bit next week about what to do with those random days.

Like if you've just got two or three days and you don't want to start a whole new unit or whatever. And what we do before the break. If you got some great tips and tidbits that are going to help you become a happy music teacher, I would be so thankful if you'd leave me a review. Thanks so much for your time.

Well, that's all I have for you today. But before I go, let me remind you, keep learning, keep growing and keep being fabulous you.