winter – MagicTimeKids

Christmas Day is just around the corner! Here’s a simple song for your little ones!!

You’ll find everything you need to teach this song–a handout, lyrics, movement suggestions, and a video. You can find this song on Apple Music, Spotify, or iTunes.

My dear friend and Oxford co-author, Setsuko Toyama from Niigata, Japan, created this wonderful activity sheet and picture cards. Just click below and print them!

It’s Christmas Time-Song by K. Kampa, Handout by S. Toyama

It’s Christmas Time

(music adapted from The Muffin Man)

1. Do you hear the jingle bells,

the jingle bells, the jingle bells?

Do you hear the jingle bells?

It’s Christmas time!

Chorus:

Christmas! Christmas! Time to celebrate.

Christmas! Christmas! We can hardly wait.

2. Do you see the Christmas tree,

the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree?

Do you see the Christmas tree?

It’s Christmas time!

Chorus:

Christmas! Christmas! Time to celebrate.

Christmas! Christmas! We can hardly wait.

Do you smell the gingerbread,

The gingerbread, the gingerbread?

Do you smell the gingerbread?

It’s Christmas time!

Chorus:

Christmas! Christmas! Time to celebrate.

Christmas! Christmas! We can hardly wait.

4. We feel joy and happiness,

happiness, happiness,

We feel joy and happiness,

It’s Christmas time!

The steps to the activity are as follows:

1. Teach the six new words using the picture cards.

It’s Christmas Time-Song by K. Kampa, Handout by S. Toyama

Create a gesture for each word.

2. As a critical thinking activity, place the pictures for hear, smell, and see in a column on the left side of the board. Place the images for gingerbread, jingle bells, and Christmas tree in a column on the right side. Point to the “hear” card as you ask students, “What can you hear?” When students answer, “jingle bells,” draw a line from hear to jingle bells. Continue in the same way with the other words. In addition, you may ask questions such as, “Can you smell a Christmas tree? Can you see jingle bells?” and so on.

3. Hand out a copy of the activity sheet to each student. Play the song. As students listen, they point to the lyrics with illustrations (known as a rebus).

4. Play the song again, with students standing in a circle or at their desks. On each verse, pantomime the movement with your students. For a performance, you could have different groups perform each of the verses.

5. There are so many possibilities for movements. For example, on the chorus, on Christmas, Christmas, students can a) make a big circle with their arms, b) wave their arms side to side, or c) choose their own idea.

On time to celebrate, students clap their hands five times, once for each syllable.

On We can hardly wait, students hug themselves, then reach their hands up on the word wait!

For the interlude music, pretend to make it snow by moving your fingers gently from up high to the ground!

We hope you enjoy this wonderful Christmas song and activity.

Here’s a video that I made with some amazing kids! They jumped right into the song and we recorded this video at a park.

For the studio version of my song, go to iTunes and click on Track #13 of Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays. (Just click on iTunes above or the album cover below.)

This music is also available on streaming services.

I have collected numerous Christmas craft activities here on Pinterest.

Happy Teaching, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Kathy Kampa

Kathy Kampa is a passionate educator of young learners. She seeks to nurture children’s imaginations and spark creativity through fun and engaging activities. Kathy believes that music and movement should be a part of every young child’s learning.

Kathy is the co-author of Magic Time, Everybody Up, Oxford Discover, Beehive and Buzz , and Blue Dot(all published by Oxford University Press). She has taught young learners in Tokyo, Japan for over 30 years. Kathy is also active as a teacher trainer, inspiring teachers around the world. She has currently returned to her home state of Minnesota in the US.

“Christmas Gingerbreads” image courtesy of nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I love the snow! I love the big snowflakes falling from the sky. I love the way it frosts the trees and makes everything look like a winter wonderland.

This winter has been warmer than usual here in Minnesota. On Valentine’s Day morning, we took a walk through the grassy fields wearing our sneakers.

When it snowed last night, I was excited to get outside today to sing this song for little ones who may be “snow lovers” like me. If you’ve read the book Froggy Gets Dressed ( by Jonathan London with illustrations by Frank Remkiewicz), you’ll see how a little frog wants to play outside in the snow. During the story, each time Froggy goes outside, his mother reminds him of the winter clothing he forgot to put on.

In this song, children can pretend to put on their winter clothing one piece at a time. My young learners LOVE this song! You can watch one video where I’m out in the snow. The other video is the pretend version for the classroom.

Let’s Play In The Snow by Doug Nichols

from the songbook “A Nichol’s Worth of Songs Volume IV “

Put on your boots and come with me.

Pretend to tug on boots. Gesture with your thumb to your chest.

Let’s go out. It’s snowing!

Stretch arms wide. Move your fingers downward to look like snow.

Put on your boots and come with me.

Pretend to tug on boots. Gesture with your thumb to your chest.

Let’s play in the snow!

Pretend to make a snowball. Throw it!

*Substitute each clothing item below into the song. Add your own ideas.

Students can also add their own ideas using my “Think, Think, Think” chant. What clothing items does Froggy wear in the winter? What do you wear? Long underwear? Ear muffs?

Think, Think, Think chant by Kathy Kampa

Think, think, think. Think, think, think.

What should we do?

Think, think, think. Think, think, think.

What should we do?

I know! Let’s put on our jacket!

If you’d like all of the images for this song, download the Google slides. You can see me putting on winter clothing items one by one. It’s fun for the students to put the slides in order and name the new item that was added. You’ll find the musical score here, too.

Here’s a video we took outside with the last item–the mittens.

This is a fun reproducible with Froggy’s clothing.

Songwriter Kathy Kampa is a passionate educator of young learners. She seeks to nurture children’s imaginations and spark creativity through fun and engaging activities. Kathy believes that music and movement should be a part of every young child’s education. Kathy’s songs for kids (Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays and Jump Jump Everyone) are available on iTunes.

Kathy uses a globally-minded and inquiry-based approach to teaching through which students develop 21st-century skills. She also supports the development of English language skills by creating songs, chants, and TPR/movement activities targeted to young learners’ needs. Kathy is an author with Oxford University Press and has co-authored English language courses for young learners (Magic Time, Everybody Up, Oxford Discover, Beehive, and Buzz). Kathy conducts teacher training sessions around the globe.

This song hasn’t been professionally recorded yet. However, for more kid-tested music and movement activities, check out more music on iTunes, Spotify, and Apple Music. Kathy has produced two music CDs for very young learners, Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays and Jump Jump Everyone, which build English language skills through music and movement while nurturing creativity and imagination. Grown and loved by real kids!

Here’s a playlist with songs for kids to move to: