Hey y’all and welcome back to the blog! After reading through this post, you’ll walk away with tons of new Nutcracker activities for your elementary music classroom! These are some of my most treasured lessons and my kiddos look forward to them every year. I know that some teachers shy away from these lessons because they have students who do not celebrate Christmas. Because of this, I do not associate any of my Nutcracker lessons with Christmas, we just make it a tradition to study it in the month of December. My students have come to expect it and usually start asking about it around Thanksgiving. Let's dive right into the lessons!
Books
As often as I can, I like to include picture books in my lessons and teaching the Nutcracker is no exception! I think this is a great way to introduce the story to my students, whether they are hearing it for the first time or the 6th! There are a ton of Nutcracker books floating around out there that tell the story or some version of the story. The two you see below are my favorites that I use almost every year. Interestingly enough, they are both illustrated by Valeria Docampo!
I use the first book (above) for my younger kiddos (PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st) because it is a simplified version of the story.
The second one (above) is based on the NYC Ballet’s version of the story. I love reading this version to my 2nd-5th graders because this is also the film we watch. The story in this book is also much more detailed. It tells about each of the dances in the Land of Sweets while the first book does not. Sometimes, depending on the class, I’ll use this section of the book to show my younger students each of the dances.
Movement
One of my favorite activities to do with my PreK-2nd grade kiddos is movement to the Nutcracker March. I’ve done this since my first year teaching and I don’t remember where I got it from. For this movement activity, the students pretend to be toy soldiers and mice. I split the class in two (usually boys and girls) and they’re only allowed to move to “their music.” For example, the first time we do the activity, the boys will be the toy soldiers and the girls will be the mice. The toy soldiers move during the trumpet fanfare portion of the song and the mice move during the string section. If it isn’t “their music” they have to freeze.
I also have a visual up on the Smart Board that tells them whose turn it is just in case they get lost. I switch between the two as the song goes and it helps them keep track.
Once we go through the entire song, we switch roles and the girls become the toy soldiers and the boys become the mice. When I say my students love this activity, I mean that they are obsessed. I had a 5th grade class come in last week asking if we could do it. 5th grade! I was floored but obviously let them do it!
There are many, many more movement activities centered around the Nutcracker floating around the internet. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Listening
I love an activity that I can use for ALL (or at least most) of my grade levels all at one time. It helps with planning and material prep. This is the very reason why I love listening glyphs. My 2-5 kiddos can do them without much guidance, and with my PreK-1 we do them together as a group.
If you’ve never done a listening glyph, the concept is pretty simple. Basically, it is a guided listening activity. The students listen for specific qualities in the music and color their picture based on what they hear. For example:
- If you hear percussion, color the shoes red.
- If you do not hear percussion, color the shoes black.
Some of the questions have a clear answer, while others are subjective (for example, did they like the piece of music or not?). I think this is really cool, because all the pictures will be unique! My favorite set of listening glyphs for the Nutcracker come from Tracy King. She has a page for each of the dances from the Land of Sweets. We usually pick 1-2 to do each year.
Play-Alongs
Does anyone else love play-along videos as much as I do? The kids have immediate success playing with the video, whether they are using instruments or just body percussion. My absolute favorite play-along video to do with the Nutcracker is Trepak from Musication. The video suggests using 5 different non-pitched percussion instruments, but I always change what we use. This week, we used hand drums, rhythm sticks, tambourines, egg shakers, and small jingle bells. Each instrument is assigned to a color and the students play along with their color. We usually do it a few times so the kids have a chance to play as many instruments as possible.
I’ve also really enjoyed using the play along for Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Jessie over at Music and Motivate! My younger students have been super successful with this because it only uses ta, titi, and shh. She also includes some ideas for movement as well!
Video Clips
I love to throw in video clips throughout our study of the Nutcracker. It’s neat especially for my younger kiddos to see examples of real ballerinas. This year, I have shown a version of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Royal Ballet and Trepak from the Boston Ballet. I use the Trepak example before we do the Musication play along. After this video, I always say, “If you ever wanted proof that boys can do ballet, there you go!” The kids are always so impressed with that version of Trepak!
During the last week of school before Christmas Break, I always show the movie version of the NYC Ballet with Macauly Culkin. This is the version my school owned on DVD before I came and now I own it on my personal Amazon account. This has become a tradition in my music room. Our elf on the shelf even dresses up as the Nutcracker for the week! Since there isn’t enough time to watch the entire ballet during one class period, I skip around and talk about various aspects of the story. When explaining ballet I tell them they are just telling stories with music and dance instead of words. One of my favorite scenes to show is the Prince telling the Sugar Plum Fairy about their adventures when they arrive in the Land of Sweets. When he acts out their story, I narrate and explain what he’s trying to say. The students always think this is so cool!
Hopefully this post has helped spark some ideas for your upcoming Nutcracker activities. If you have a favorite lesson idea, make sure to share it in the comments below! I love hearing what other people do in their classrooms!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by the blog today! If you haven’t already, head on over to Instagram and follow me at @musicfromb2z!