Christmas is one of the busiest times in any school music department and whilst you’re preparing concerts and carol services (which generally requires some cover work whilst you’re out and about) you’re also trying to add some festive cheer to your lessons and keep pupils engaged and inspired! In this post we’ve collated some festive resources that might just save you time and energy as the busy season approaches…
1. KS2 Twelve Days of Christmas Project
If you’re teaching KS2 or want to take inspiration from this festive project for KS3, by Rosamund Savourin for the London Philharmonic. They have produced a class performance lesson on the popular song The Twelve Days of Christmas.
An outline of the lesson plan is provided, and some supporting resources.
2. Festive Boomwhacker resources
If you have a class set of boomwhackers there are plenty of resources available to deliver a festive-themed lesson either as a whole class or in small groups.
Check out the Musication and Boomy Tunes YouTube channels for fun play-along videos of various Christmas tunes.
3. Resources from Musical Contexts
The Musical Contexts Big Quiz is one of the most popular resources at Christmas time! It contains a “Main PowerPoint Quiz Presentation” featuring all 20 rounds complete with embedded audio .wav files which are also available as .mp3 files separately. There’s also both MS-Word and PDF formats of the “Main Quiz Booklet” which contains handouts of pictures and visual rounds, complete with quiz answers which are also featured on the ‘notes’ section of each PowerPoint slide.
The Christmas Ensemble Classics Performance Packs feature accessible and playable arrangements of several well-known Christmas songs suitable for flexible ensemble performing in the KS2/Primary and KS3/Secondary classrooms.
4. Christmas Carol resources
The Project Christmas website has a range of downloadable and interactive resources which can be filtered by age category, including quiz sheets, videos and trivia games.
5. Christmas Listening Pack – KS3, 4 & 5
Our popular Christmas Listening Pack provides something a bit different – here you’ll find music by G.F Handel, Nina Simone, Gerald Finzi, Alan Silvestri and more. Students can access the music via weblink or QR code and all the music is available on the I Can Compose YouTube channel. Ideal for a lesson starter task, cover lesson or festive homework activity!
6. Christmas songwriting
Christmas songwriting can be a fun and practical way to get pupils composing. Follow this link for 8 tips to get started…
We hope you find these resources helpful as you navigate the busy festive period!
