I simply love to break out the Christmas music. This year I didn’t even wait until after Thanksgiving. Who am I kidding? I rarely wait until after Thanksgiving. 😉 I thought I’d add a little twist this year. We had fun writing stories to Christmas music, like we did a few months ago with classical music.
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Picking Christmas Music
To do this activity, we used only instrumental Christmas music. My favorite resource is The Nutcracker Suite. My kids have never seen The Nutcracker performed, so they did not already have a preconceived idea of each piece. First, we listened to a few excerpts. I let the kids {MBug- age 3, NJoy- age 5 and ALuv- age 8} pick the ones that “moved” them the most.
Storytelling with Music
We brainstormed for each piece what we visualized happening in our heads. While MBug and NJoy had fun creating stories and telling them to me, they did not have any interest in drawing or writing them this time. But because ALuv is officially “in school”, this was required writing. 😉
Writing Stories to Christmas Music
The piece that spoke the most to ALuv was Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. We had fun listening to the piece over and over again, acting out the plot he had created as the music played.
He requested that I create a page with a spot for three pictures, as he wanted to draw what happened first, next and last in his story. As he drew his pictures, he listened to the piece {in repeat mode, mind you}. I’m so thankful it wasn’t the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker!
I requested that he write a good “2nd grade sentence” to go with each picture to create a storyline. Once finished, he listened to the music one more time and read his story along with the music!
Follow This Reading Mama’s board Christmas Theme on Pinterest.
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I have created a free pack of writing templates {seen below}, from preschool templates to upper elementary templates that you can download and try with your own kids. Have fun writing stories to Christmas music! {If I was still in the classroom, I would totally use this as a listening center.}
Download the FREE Writing Stories to Christmas Music Pack HERE.
 To see ALL our Christmas Activities & Printables Click HERE or on the image above.
~Becky
Becky, this is really a great idea! Yesterday while my son building with his Christmas LEGOS I had on the Classical Christmas Pandora station and I KNOW it helped his writing. This is a wonderful download! Thank you!
Thank you, Mary. We use classical music quite a bit here, too.
This is fabulous! It’s perfect for my daughter who needs some more writing practice. I’ve pinned it & linked to it in my 10 Ways to Play This Weekend post!
Thank you!
This is such a wonderful idea! I love it!
Thank you, Sara! 🙂
My daughter loved this! Thank you!!!
I’m so glad to hear.