🙌Choir Classroom Traditions - Don't Miss Out

Hey all! 

Let’s talk about traditions in the choir classroom! 🎤❤️ I’m a nostalgic girl at heart and love a good tradition. Not only do traditions build community with your students but they also help make planning a breeze! 🗂️🙌

Our winter choir concert is usually scheduled during the first week of December ❄️🎄. This is good and bad.
✅ Good, because it allows us to avoid other December conflicts and gets everyone in a festive mood.
⚠️ But also bad, because we have 2 full weeks before winter break! 😅

Here are a few traditions that are easy to implement in your choir classroom! 👇🎵

🎶 The Day After the Choir Concert Tradition

It doesn't matter what time of year- the day after a concert looks the same every time! Bonus: having the same lesson plan the day after a concert saves me time and energy when lesson planning! 🙌🧠

• Concert Critique / Brief Discussion 📝💬
  My students are more willing to write their feelings about their concert performance than share it out loud in class.
  

• Music Collection & Filing 📂🎼
  My Choir Officers are in charge of organizing and collecting music from our concert and helping get the new music ready!
  

• Choir-related game 🎲😂
  We like to celebrate a successful concert by playing a choir-related game or two.
  

🎄 Festive Holiday Traditions

In December, we have two full weeks of class after our last performance. Here are some ideas of how I fill time while keeping music (and fun!) alive 

• White Elephant Gift Exchange 🎁🐘
  If you’ve never done a White Elephant Gift Exchange with your choir, don’t wait any longer!!! Planning is easy: students bring a wrapped item from their house- no money spent. I remind students a lot and email parents for backup😉. I also keep extra gifts on hand and even ask students to bring a second item to share.
  We sit in a big circle 🔄 and I read a pass left, pass right story. Whatever gift they end with is theirs! Make sure kids know this is just for fun.
  We did our gift exchange today and one kid got a can of chili beans 🥫😂
  

• Class Talent Show / “Un-Talent Show” 🌟🎭
  You can do a traditional music-related talent show or spice it up with an Un-Talent Show 😜🔥. This year we did both and had SO much fun!
  Acts included: balloon animal making 🎈, Rock-Paper-Scissors battle ✂️🪨📄, hypnosis 😵‍💫, an out-of-tune piccolo duet complete with earplug earrings 🎧🎶 (see picture below!), and a PowerPoint presentation of state flags where the student named them as fast as possible 🗺️⚡. We laughed so much!!!
  

• Watching a Musical Together 🎬🎵
  We watched a YouTube version of our upcoming spring musical. This spring, our school is putting on “Annie” 👩‍🦰. It helps students get familiar with the show and gives me a breather after a busy concert season 😌
  

• Community Caroling Tour 🚍🎶
  My top group went on a “tour” around town! I choose one day in December where we hop on a bus and perform all over town.
  

• Finals & Food 📝🍕
  We give finals at our high school, and I try to make them more enjoyable with a potluck on finals day. Sometimes we even make pancakes!

What kind of traditions does your choir do? 🤔🎶 I’d love to share them with the Savvy Ellie Music Community! 💕

Wishing you a restful and peaceful break with your family 💫👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
Happy Holidays! 🎄Melanie