Winter Themed Music Class Activities, Games, and Centers

Coming back to school in January after Christmas break can be a drag, but it doesn’t have to be! I’ve created some new activities for my music classes this year, and I would love to share them with you. You can use my ideas to create your own versions. I’ll also include a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store for each activity if you want to save yourself some time. Fun, engaging activities make coming back from a break so much more enjoyable.

Snowman Matching Game/Center

I used Canva to help me create this snowman music note values game. (Canva is an online design website you can use for free to create printables, posters, worksheets, etc.) Each snowman has notes in their bottom snowball. The hats have a number in them. The game starts with all the hat cards face down and each student has 6 snowman cards. The first student draws a hat. If they have a snowman with the equivalent value on the hat, they put the hat on the snowman. If they do not, then they put the hat back in the center and the game continues with the next person. I also made a note values cheat sheet so students can reference that with trying to figure out the sum of the notes.

Here it is on Teachers Pay Teachers: Snowman Music Rhythm Center

Hot Chocolate Music Centers

I have 2 hot chocolate themed music games. The first one I made is an instrument sorting game. I found some mug clipart on teachers pay teachers. I made a file with 4 mugs. Each mug has an instrument family written it. I then made a bunch of wide cylinders to look like marshmallows with an instrument inside each one. The students lay all the mugs out, then put the appropriate marshmallows in each mug.

I included an answer key so students could check if they were correct.

The other hot chocolate center is a composing and playing center. My students do a lot of saying words rhythmically to learn their values, so this type of center is pretty familiar to them. I made some phrases that are themed around hot chocolate with the rhythms for the words written below them. The students put the phrase cards together, say the phrases, then play the phrases on hand drums.

Here are the activities on Teachers Pay Teachers: Hot Cocoa Rhythms, Hot Cocoa Instrument Sort

Winter Themed Composing and Playing Center and Whole Class Activity

I’m a sucker for a multi-grade, multi-use activity. I created this resource with 2nd through 4th grades in mind, using it different ways for each grade level.

The first way is practicing the rhythm sentences on the Smartboard. I used the Smart Notebook clipart, put an infinity cloner on each clipart, and then kept copy/pasting the slides until I had enough for the entire class to have a fresh one. Make sure you don’t save the file after a class uses it or you’ll have to delete all the changes when you open it the next time.

Here is the Smart Notebook activity in action with my 2nd graders:

The third and 4th graders will be using these pictures in a composing center. Each picture is it’s own square. Students place four squares in a line. This becomes their rhythm sentence. Then they play the rhythm sentence on a drum. Next they add letter name cards. The rhythm sentence is now a short, composed, melody. Here’s a third grader playing the short melody she created.

Here is the winter themed composing set of activities on Teachers Pay Teachers: Winter Themed Music Activities

Snowflake Music Lines and Spaces Matching Game (BINGO)

Here is the snowflake BINGO game on Teachers Pay Teachers: Snowflake Matching Game

I hope you have seen some useful ideas for whole class, small groups, and centers that will make your cold winter months a little more enjoyable.