Winter: Music, Literacy, and More!
Shivering Snowman! Get moving with these winter-themed activities!
Even if you don’t receive an inch of snow or temperatures below freezing, you can always dream up what winter feels like. Today in the Bear Paw Creek blog, we are focusing on winter-themed music, movement, and literacy activities for you to use in your music classes or music therapy sessions (or where ever you use music and movement!). We have also included a handy YouTube playlist to inspire you in your planning.
Winter Song Playlist
Included on this playlist are some standards — Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride — but I also included some lesser-known songs that you can use at this time of year.
- Winter Wonderland – Michael Buble
- Jingle Bells – Laurie Berkner
- Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson
- A Marshmellow World – Dean Martin
- Winter Song – Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
- River – James Taylor (Sarah McLachlan has a really great version, too!)
- The Skater’s Waltz
- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow! – Dean Martin
- Winter Wind – The Piano Guys
- Frosty the Snowman – Jimmy Durante
- Let It Go/Winter from The Four Seasons – The Piano Guys/Vivaldi
Shivering Snowman! Grab these chilly winter music and movement activities! — via @BearPawCreek
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The Skater’s Waltz
I mentioned The Skater’s Waltz last month in the Christmas-themed blog post (you can read it here). I love this piece of versatile music so much that I wanted to include it here, too.
The Skater’s Waltz can be used in so many different ways. You can pull out your Stretchy Band or parachute and have your students or clients lift and lower right to the waltz beat of the music (for a total of 6 counts up, 6 counts down). Make sure you are keeping track of student/client fatigue with the movements and give them appropriate break times from the movement.
You can also take your Stretchy Band (my daughters’ music teacher calls it “Super Stretchy”), and have your clients or students mirror your movements. While stationary, you can move with a circling motion, a bicycling motion, as well as pulling, pushing, zig zagging, and stretching motions. Again, make sure you are watching for student/client fatigue.
You can also use The Skater’s Waltz with your creative movement with scarves and streamers. You can even check out these neat winter-themed jingle streamers. And don’t forget that there is a special winter balloon ball, too! So many music and movement possibilities!
Snowball Fight
Last year, when the indoor snowball prop set was created, many of you shared your fun ideas. Janet and her family even had an indoor snowball fight in Missouri, where snow is rare! They included Jimmy Fallon’s Snowfight book in their activities. You can read Janet’s blog post here (it also includes a great activity idea from Carole of Macaroni Soup).
Additional Resources
Rachel Rambach does it again! She created an awesome Winter Song Pack, especially for those working with younger children.
Amy from Wholesome Harmonies, LLC featured a Frosty Mad Lib on her blog — perfect for your elementary level kiddos.
This is one of my favorite go-to winter songs — My Snowmen (to the tune of This Old Man). It is super cute, engaging especially for younger kiddos.
What winter-themed songs and activities are in your “go-to” stash? Have a fun time moving to the music suggested here, and STAY WARM!
