Christmas Lessons in Review

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on how some of the Christmas activities worked with my students in the last couple of weeks. I certainly enjoy this time of year, and I think that they did too!

For games, I played Ornament Bingo with my beginner students and Musical Christmas Lights with some beginners and all my intermediate students. Both of these games can be found at Susan Paradis site. My students always seem to like bingo-type games. Sometimes I play with them and sometimes I let them play alone with me calling out letters or whatever. There are lots of possibilities with these games for variety.

From Jen's Piano Studio Blog we played Christmas Carol Rhythm Matchups (does anyone else really have to think when they spell the word "rhythm"???? :) We also played a similar, but slightly more advanced game from Layton Music called Christmas Rhythms. (Theres that word again!) These games (yes, they still are games) helped them to really think while being able to enjoy some well-known Christmas Carols. Sometimes I would just leave them to figure it out on their own, sometimes I would sing and clap the song, then have them put it together and then clap it back to me.

All of my beginners played some of these simple Christmas Songs from Susan Paradis: Good King Wenceslas and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Some of my students went online and found some other Christmas carols to play. Go them! They all loved playing these. My 7-year-old sister Carrie loved The TWelve Days of Christmas....I mean loved it. She even added the little "bump-bump bum bum" like Miss Piggy after "5 golden rings." And if I hear one more verse of that song, I think I'll scream. :)

And now, I have one more lesson tomorrow, and then we are done with lessons until after the New Year. My students are glad for the break...I did not assign them anything over Christmas. And their teacher is glad for a little break too. :) How about you?