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Ah, Christmas. So many songs, so little time. Every year I feel like I cannot narrow down how many songs I want to do. How do you get to them all? Anyway, my fourth and fifth graders are in the middle of a huge recorder unit, and I did not want to put that on pause to do a bunch of Christmas music (we’re doing the Link Up curriculum, and we are on a deadline!). So I only picked a few songs for my 4-5 graders, and the 12 Days of Christmas was our main song.
This song is so much fun, and so easy because it is cumulative.
There are about a million things that you can do with this song, but I narrowed it down to a few. I used a PDF version of a PowerPoint that I made, which you can check out on TPT here.
It is also part of my music lessons bundle, which has 6 different Christmas lessons at a discounted price, which you can get here.
You can also check out my free Oh Christmas Tree Music Game (with free lyric sheet and coloring sheet) here.
12 Days of Christmas
- First, go over the words to the song the 12 Days of Christmas. It is super easy, so we just read through the words and then I started singing the first verse and by the second verse, they had figured it out.
- Next, have the students sing through the song. You can play it on the piano or use a YouTube video to sing along with.
- Pick one student to create movements for each gift. So one student will pick and lead movements for a partridge in a pear tree. One will do it for two turtledoves, etc.
- Sing through the song and have the students follow the movements that the leaders for each gift choose. Again, you can accompany on the piano or ukulele or you can play a recorder version.
- Then, you can create a new version of the 12 Days of Christmas. I project the page from my 12 Days of Christmas product that has the first half of each line and then write the students’ answers on the board. Let the kids pick what they get on each day.
- Sing through the song with your kids’ version of the song. This will need to be done a cappella or with the piano or ukulele or guitar. You can’t sing it with the recording because the words will be different.
- Have students create individual versions of the 12 Days of Christmas if you need to include more writing in your curriculum!
- Last, you can have students color pictures or their 12 Days of Christmas or the original version. There are coloring sheets in my product, if you get that.
- Update: I did this lesson again a year later, and it was successful again. I added in listeningg to the parody “the 12 Days After Christmas” on YouTube and talking about a parody. They thought it was hilarious.
So there you go! Movement, writing, singing, and fun. My kids enjoyed this immensely! They thought it was so much fun. And I enjoyed it too!
Also check out my free Oh Christmas Tree music lesson/game for what I am doing with my second and third graders. Or you can get the Christmas in the Music Room Bundle and get enough lessons for the rest of the year!
And check out the decorations and books I got for my classroom in my YouTube video.
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How do you teach 12 Days of Christmas? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Teaching!
