Winter Games to Play in the Elementary Music Room

Those weeks before Winter break can be brutal for an elementary music teacher.  Obviously, you’re going to continue teaching up until the last day before break.  But, let’s be completely honest right now (because that’s how I roll).  You’re going to have a day (or ten) that don’t go according to plan, where your students are a little more hyper than usual, and where you’re just trying to keep your sanity in tact.  These elementary music winter games are fun to tack on to the end of your lesson or to use as a reward.

 

Snowball steady beat

There may or may not be snow on the ground where you live in December.  Either way, pretending to play with “snowballs” in the music room is so much fun. This activity is a fun way for students to keep a steady beat, without them even realizing that they’re doing it.

Wad up some pieces of paper and have students face a partner.   While playing songs about Winter, students will practice passing the “snowball” to the steady beat.  If the snowball falls to the ground or if you see a set of partners not keeping a steady beat, those students are out.  To make it even more interesting, for the upper elementary grades, pick songs where the tempo speeds up and slows down throughout the song. The game keeps going until there is only one set of partners left.

 

Winter songs Pictionary

One of my favorite games to play is Pictionary.  It’s a simple way for students to show off their drawing skills, but also uses cooperative learning.

Divide the class into two teams.  Each team will pick a drawer to come to the board when it’s their turn.  For the lower grades, you the teacher will be the drawer and the teams will take turn guessing.  For my students, when I’d draw “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” (for example), no one could guess what my stick figure drawing was.  So, hopefully your artistic abilities are a bit better than mine are.

When the drawer is at the board, they will draw a card that has a Winter song written on it that they should be familiar with.  They draw a picture of that song on the board for their team to guess.  If the team guesses correctly, they get a point.  Keep going until a team gets to 10-12 points.

 

Winter freeze dance

Freeze dance is such a fun activity to do during any month in the music room.  But, during the Winter months, it can be even more fun.  Any type of movement during the Winter months is great to do since the kids may have inside recess anyways.  One of my favorite movement activities to do is to “Trepak” from the Nutcracker (which you can read more about here.)

While the students are dancing to a song (think Mariah Carey’s Christmas CD…), when you pause the music, they have to freeze.  The students won’t just freeze any old way.  They’ll freeze like what you call out.  You’ll call out words like “snowman”, “Santa”, “Christmas tree”, etc.  Your students will ask to do this at the end of the class period again and again and this is the perfect activity to use as a class reward.

 

Christmas sing along

This isn’t so much a Winter game as it is just a fun activity to do.  Set up a pretend fire, have the students stand around the piano, or even take your students caroling up and down the halls of your school.  Most of our students have never participated in a sing along, so letting them experience this will create lots of memories that will last with them a lifetime.

Check out the blog post here about 10 traditional Christmas carols to sing with your students.

 

Pass the snowball

Speaking of snowballs, here’s another fun elementary music Winter game to play with your students.  It’s honestly as simple as it sounds.  Instead of passing a beanbag to the steady beat, your students will pass a “snowball.”

Wad up another piece of paper (or use one of the million you already wadded up in the previous activity ha) and pass it around the circle.  When the music stops, whoever is holding the snowball is out.

 

Note name snowmen

This activity is more of a note naming game that can be done independently, in groups, or as a whole class.  On a piece of paper, you’ll have different snowmen that have various notes written inside of each one on the staff.  Some of the notes aren’t identified and the students will label those notes in.  What makes it even more fun is if each snowman spells out a word related to Winter like “bag” or “feed” which are both related to Santa and his reindeer.

 

What games or activities do you like doing in your music classroom?  I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.   

Also, I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it.

P.S.  Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher?  Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!