Ideas for Creating a Sense of Normalcy Throughout the Holidays
October 27, 2020|
alfred.com
The holidays are upon us! Halloween is here and before we know it, schools will be closed for December holiday break. Considering how different the world is that we live in right now, there’s no doubt you might be trying to figure out ways to keep things feeling as “normal” as possible for your students during this sprint through the holidays.
Here are a few ideas on how to create a sense of normalcy and fun for the holiday season, whether you’re in person or remote:
Halloween
- Show up to class unexpectedly wearing a costume
- Schedule a day for the entire class to wear a costume
- Free Music Activity: Halloween Word Scramble
- Decorate your class or change your virtual background to something festive
- Listening exploration on Score & Sound
- Sing a festive or “spooky” song
- Free PDF download: "October" and "Ghosts and Ghoulies" from A Year in Unison
- Free PDF download: "Pumpkin Patch" from I Sing, You Sing: Holiday Songs
Thanksgiving
- Encourage gratitude for the month with gratitude journaling
- Choose a day where you go around the class talking about favorite Thanksgiving memories, traditions, and/or or favorite Thanksgiving foods
- Thanksgiving Coloring Activity for Music Students
- Listening exploration on Score & Sound
- Decorate your class or change your virtual background to something festive
- Create a harvest scavenger hunt where students get outside and look for acorns, leaves, pumpkins, etc.
- Learn a new song about “Giving Thanks”
Christmas/December holidays
- Choose a day where you so around the class talking about favorite Christmas/Hanukkah/other December memories and/or traditions
- Show up to class unexpectedly wearing reindeer antlers or elf ears or a Santa hat
- Assign or share our Free Christmas Carol Crossword Activity
- Decorate your class or change your virtual background to something festive
- Discuss “The History of the Christmas Carol ”
- Learn some new holiday songs
- Two-Gether We Sing Christmas
- A World of Christmas: Holiday Songs, Carols, and Customs from 15 Countries
- If you’re not doing programs this season, consider just utilizing the optional script (10 narrators per song) as it describes the seasonal customs and traditions that occur in each country during the holiday season.
- A Year in Unison
- I Sing, You Sing: Holiday Songs
- Create a fun choreography video using “Theme from Elf” - designed to fit on a computer screen!
- Discuss other December holidays; learn new traditions
- Elf Yourself! Students have a blast using photos of themselves and friends to create an animated elf dancing in a variety of ways. Elf Yourself shows students what a little bit of creativity and technology can do. You or students can create them and email them to their parents with a special message.