Snowball Singing Time

This is one of the kids favorite singing times during the year!  Several years ago, I started this tradition to do every last Sunday of the year.  I give each child a piece of paper, then I ask them to write their favorite song on it with their name.  (Teachers help the little ones).  I then have them all at crinkle the paper into a ball.  I explain to them they now have a snowball and they are going to try to hit the target, ME!  They love this!  I work them so hard all year I like to tell them this is their chance to get back at me. Ha.  So on the count of 3, I stand in front and they can throw their snowballs at me! I then pick a snowball up, and open it up to see what song we will sing.  The Junior love it when I tell them I have to put my gloves on to pick them up because after all they are snowballs, and snowballs are cold!  I keep all the snowballs that we don't get to use in a bag, and we will pull them out and use them for a couple of months, or at least until the snow melts!

The Nativity Song

I absolutely love this song.  The music is so beautiful and I love how it tells the whole story.  I tuaght this for the first time this year.  It seems there is so little time to do the songs you want.  This year I decided to make sure I taught this song though.  Our program wasn't till the end of November, so it really limited our time for Christmas songs.  I thought this book was a good way to teach it since it is a story.  I am going to go over the song and then I will have the children either act it out, or put up the pieces of the nativity as we go along.
It always depends upon time.  Dressing the children up does take much longer, but boy do they love it!  If I am in a time crunch, which happens more than I like, then I will just have them put the pieces of the nativity up as we sing the song. It is a long song, but is absolutely beautiful and well worth the time to teach.

Here is my book that I made.  If you don't want to make your own book then you can make a flip chart off this web site:
http://www.jollyjenn.com/TheNativitySong.pdf

Picture A Christmas

A couple of Sundays ago, I started teaching the children "Picture A Christmas".  In the past I have used some hand signs to represent each part of the song, but this year I decided to do it a little differently.
I put items in a bag that represented a part of the song.  I went around the room and had several children pull them out of the bag.  As we sang the song, they had to figure where their object fit in.  They would then hold it up for everyone to see.  After singing through it once, the second time they knew when to hold up their object and it gave the children a visual to go along with the song.  The kids loved this and it was really very simple.
Here are the items that I used:

Picture a stable in Judea

Picture a sacred, silent night. (pillow)

And can you hear, the angels near

and see the star so bright.

Picture a little baby Jesus

think of his life and words so dear

 Sing praise to Him

Remember Him (a ribbon to tie on their finger or wrist to remind them)

as you picture Christmas this year. (hold up a picture of the nativity)

Picture the kind and gentle Joseph

Picture the mother, Mary, fair

And can you see, so reverently, the Shepherds kneeling there

(Repeat Chorus with same object)