It's the most wonderful time of the year and also the most manic for all you preschool practitioners and early years teachers.
Here at 'Ready, Steady, Music!' I LOVE to take the pressure off with our resources so here are my favourite Christmassy ideas for music making.
The ideas are here and if you check out my Instagram or Facebook pages and give me a follow, you will see me demonstrating the songs and activities over the next couple of weeks.
Somebody's knocking at the door - put your favourite Christmas characters in a box or bag. When you pull one out, make up a little word chant 'Father Christmas, HO! HO! HO!' Remember to engage your learners with plenty of 'knocking on the door' on their sticks or wooden spoons. This will be a great activity to leave out and about for the children to explore with a box, some wooden spoons and different figures or animals to hide
5 Little Snowmen - a lovely counting song for the chillier days. Use 5 little cut out snowmen on lolly sticks or even better 5 painted snowmen created by your children. Why not have 5 coloured scarves and invite the children to be the snowmen? Emphasize the 'melted to the ground' with moving downwards in relation to the descending pitch
Hokey Cokey - use your pom poms or jingly bells. 'You put your jingle bells/pom poms in etc. Make sure you sing this slowly and give time for all the in, out and shake it all about!
This is the way the reindeer trots - use the song about the horse trotting/galloping and add a flying verse. A Rudolf puppet is great for this and wooden sounds for the trotting and wind chimes for the flying?
Peek-a-boo- one of our favourite 'Ready, Steady, Music!' songs! Hide Father Christmas or a snowman...'Peek-a-boo where are you? Who is hiding? Ready, steady...BOO!