Singing, Dancing & Sharing
It’s the middle of December and Christmas is almost here! Time is moving by so quickly! Currently, we are recording the vocals and finalizing the musical arrangement for a new winter song. While we’re finishing that, I want to share some activities for one of our other Christmas songs, Am a Christmas Elf.
I Am a Christmas Elf tells the story of four elves working at Santa’s workshop. Each elf sings about the details of his or her job preparing gifts for Christmas. The song begins playfully in a classical style but we spice it up with world instruments from China and France, and percussion from Latin America! This adds more drama and fun when singing and moving to each verse.
Here is a sample of the song. I Am a Christmas Elf has an MP3 of the song and a karaoke version.
Today I want to share some activities that I do when I use music, songs and movement in my classroom. The first section contains activities that focus on music and movement. The second section contains conversation-based activities. Let’s begin!
To introduce a song with movements, I begin with a whole group activity.
Whole Group:
- The whole class follows me as I sing and dance/gesture to the song
- Note: Click hereto see the video with the song gestures and expressions for I Am a Christmas Elf.
After the students have sung the songs a few times and they feel more comfortable I transition to a small groups activity.
Small Groups:
- Divide the class into four groups. Each group sings and gestures to each verse of the song:
- verse 1: I paint, paint…
- verse 2: I wrap, wrap…
- verse 3: I cut, cut…
- verse 4: I hammer, hammer…
- For the chorus of the song (I am a Christmas Elf, etc.), all the students sing and dance/gesture together.
- If the class is seated, have each group stand up during its verse.
- Rotate the verses to a different group and sing again. Allow all the groups to try each character.
When my students know the song, I then transition to a pair work activity.
Pair Work:
- Put the students in pairs and have each student choose a verse (1, 2, 3, or 4) to sing (or assign a verse to each child).
- The pairs should sing and act to the verse accordingly.
- Variation: Pause after each verse and have the students find another partner. For example, play the first verse and the pairs sing and act to the first verse. After the first verse, pause the MP3, let the students find another partner, then start the MP3 for the chorus and second verse. Continue this way through the song..
After doing music- and movement-based activities, I like to cool down and refocus the students by transitioning to Sharing Time. During Sharing Time, the focus is on finding ways to help students learn and practice expressing themselves. I start a conversation by asking questions and answering questions that relate to the topic or theme of the song. Below are questions that match up with I Am a Christmas Elf song. Use these questions with your students to explore how they feel, what they like to do, and what duties or chores they have to do.
Here is an example of how I lead my class for the transition from a movement activity to a conversation-based activity.
Transition:
After the song activity is finished, I instruct the students to return to their chairs or sit in a circle or sit on the floor. Then I play the MP3 audio of Sit Down and Look at Me song (or just start singing it without the MP3 audio). The first verse is the teacher and the second verse is the students. Repeat the song if necessary. Here are links to download the song and watch the video to learn the gestures.
Next, I start Sharing Time. Below are questions to start and guide the conversation. Be sure to share details about yourself, too! Use gestures as you talk about yourself to help tell the story.
Sharing Time: Learning to Express Oneself
Questions about giving and receiving:
- Have you ever gotten a gift from someone?
- Was is wrapped?
- Did you have fun unwrapping it?
- How did you feel when you got the gift?
- Have you ever given a gift to someone?
- How did it feel giving a gift to someone?
- Was it fun thinking about what type of gift to give?
Questions about preparing and making:
- Have you ever wrapped a gift for someone?
- What tools did you use to wrap it? (scissors, tape, paper, ribbon etc)
- How did you feel preparing the gift?
- Have you ever made a gift for someone?
- What did you make?
- What was it made of? (paper, paint, crayons, markers, pencils, clay, glue, ribbon, glitter, etc…)
- What tools did you use? (scissors, tape, paper, ribbon, etc.)
- How did you feel when making it?
Questions about chores or tasks:
- Do you have chores or a task that you have to do today?
- Is it important? / Are they important?
- Why is it important?
- Who does it help?
- How do you feel when you finish your chore or task?
- Have you ever forgotten to do your chore/task??
- How do you feel when you forget to do it?
- What do you do to remind yourself?
- Have you ever tried to do your task or chore, but messed it up?
- How do you feel when you mess it up?
- Do you want to keep trying?
From my experience, music, movement and sharing work very well together! So never just sing a song but move and sing to it then always conclude with a Sharing Time activity related to the theme of the song.
Check out the video to learn movements for the song.
I Am a Christmas Elf
Click the below Teacher-Pay-Teachers icon to download I Am a Christmas Elf.
