First Grade Carolers and Even Rondo Form

Just wanted to quickly share about a fun little tradition that I have with my first graders.  Every year I teach them “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and talk about carols, caroling, and teach them the fun story of this song.

We first learn the song and I play the melody on the piano.  I ask them if they’ve ever heard that before and lots of hands go up.  We talk about where they’ve heard it:  the store, the radio, the TV, their friends, etc.  Then I have a quick disclaimer about how I teach this music to them because it’s so popular and such great music (we had some Jehovah’s Witnesses in our school a few years ago and I had some important discussions with their parents when it came to holiday music time- I shared, they shared, and in the end everyone was happy).  I tell my students that I don’t teach holiday songs because I think that they should celebrate Christmas.  Everyone celebrates the things that they think are important.  I teach them the song because it’s something they’re going to hear all over in this country anyway and I want them to know what it is and how to sing it so that they can feel like part of the group.

Learning the Song

We learn the first verse “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and I put up a picture to represent that part on my projector (usually a circle or square or other shape, but for this song I used a Christmas tree post-it).  We do this to label that section and start to give a visual outline to the form.  Once we’re comfortable with that we learn the new part “Good Tidings we bring, to you and your kin,” and put up a new picture/letter to represent it on the board.  Of course this gives us a good moment to stop and talk about vocabulary:  kin, good tidings, etc.  Then we get back to the “We Wish you a Merry Christmas,” and up goes that first picture again.  They identify ABA form and we have a blast going over that.

TINY TRICK for later:  When learning actions to this song I teach them that “Good Carolers” always keep their hands behind their back when they sway and sing.  It keeps their hands behind their back and serves another purpose that you’ll see later…

When we’re ready and have sung ABA with actions and the piano we move on to the next part.  I run over to my desk and start putting on my coat and scarf and talk about how people go around from house to house with their friends to sing carols.   “Carols are special songs for holiday times and you can really only sing them at a certain time of the year.  I mean, would you sing about Rudolph during July?  No!  And because people love the songs so much sometimes they get together with friends just to sing.  And if they want to share their music, they put on their coats and hats and scarves and walk around outside and stop at other people’s houses to sing their carols.  AND if they’re really good or nice, the person at the house might give them something warm and yummy to eat as a thank you.”  This perks them up.  We talk about things they could give us to eat and then I tell them about figgy pudding.  What makes it awesome?  It’s sweet, it has fun fruit in it, and you get to light it on fire!  They are intrigued, so we learn the music.

Of course, when we learn the new music we figure out that it’s different than before, so we put up another new picture to help show the form.  Now it can’t be ABAB form because we’ve got a C in there… must be something new.  We learn “Now bring us some figgy pudding… and a cup of good cheer” and then learn actions.  We make it a story and pretend that we’re at someone’s house and asking for the food.  We smile and hold out our hands and then I say “Well, we’ll give you time to go to the kitchen and get our pudding.  While you go get it we’ll sing a little ditty for you.” And then comes the recurring A for our Rondo form.  Now we’re up to ABACA

IF they bring us pudding we say thank you and sing A again for them to show them that we’re nice, but if they don’t bring us pudding we scowl, cross our arms and sing the new verse in an angry voice, “we won’t go until we get some!”  We stomp and cross our arms and they think that’s a hoot.  This of course gets a new picture and letter.  Now we have pictures and letters for ABACAD on the board.  If they finally bring us pudding (or something else just as good) we sing a final A section and call it good.  I identify this new form as a Rondo form since the A keeps coming back with new material in between.  We talk about it, then we move on to something else for the rest of the class period.

The next time I see them we sing this song as an opener.  I pull out our pictures and letters to remind them of the ABACADA form and then we sing.  I also pull out a puppet to be the person we’re caroling to.  We go through the story and when the puppet doesn’t bring our pudding we stomp and grind our teeth and look angry and of course the puppet doesn’t wait too long to go and actually get the pudding out for us.  They think it’s a hoot.  It’s good to refresh and then we move on to different content for the day.

At this point I reinforce the actions that we’ve learned, making sure to remind them that good carolers keep their hands behind their back, say nice things, and always smile.

On our third day of this song they come in and we run through the song and I tell them that we’re actually going to go caroling!  They don’t know this, but I’ve gone down to the office to prep the ladies there that we’re going to carol.  Our secretaries LOVE this and so it’s always a crowd pleaser.

We line up with our hands behind our back and we walk out quietly smiling in the hallway, saying nice things to anyone we pass.  When we finally make it to the front office I mention to the kids that I think that our secretaries might love a little song and that we should try there.  We walk in and the secretaries feign surprise and delight at our little crew.  We sing a cappella for them and when we get to “Now bring us some figgy pudding….” The secretaries look surprised.  One says, “Well, I’m so sorry kids, but we don’t have any pudding here…” and we look angry and sing, “We won’t go until we get some!”.

Then she pulls out a bag of Hershey’s Kisses that I’ve sneaked to her earlier in the day and says, “well we don’t have pudding but we do have this chocolate!  Have you ever had figgy pudding anyway? It’s not as great as you might think.”  The kids light up because they don’t really think that they’re going to get anything.  I buy enough for each kid to have two pieces of candy and then I say “You can put one piece in each hand and then put your hands behind your back like good carolers do.”  This is something I prep on day one for this very moment.  Now kids are less able to sneak the candy in the hallway and have to wait to eat it when we get back to the music room.  USUALLY this works.  But there’s always someone like my little friend Christopher who finds a way to get that chocolate to his mouth before we get back to the room… Sigh…

When we get back we watch a video with John Denver caroling with the Muppets and singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  They get their candy, I get a little break for those last 5 minutes, and the secretaries are pleased as punch.  Oh yeah, and it’s cute as all get out!  Most of all the kids remember it as a great experience and also remember the idea of caroling.  In our little Hispanic community people generally don’t do as much caroling, so this is a fun and learning experience for everyone.

Do you carol with your kids or teach them certain caroling songs?  Any ideas for how I could make this lesson better?  Leave comments below!  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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