Thanksgiving...the unofficial start to the holiday season and my
favorite time of year!
As I write this,
the wind is howling outside so loudly, whipping the fresh snow up all over the
place. Although weather reports
predicted only about 1-2 inches, I measured 7 inches about 5 hours ago!
When I was outside shoveling snow earlier today, I was thinking about one of
my favorite Thanksgiving songs, “Over the River and Through the Woods.” Specifically, the text that came to my mind
was “it stings the toes and bites the nose.”
I sang this song a lot with my elementary music classes last week, and
will have a few more chances this week before Thanksgiving break. I have loved this song since I was
young.
When I have used it in my classroom over the last several years, I normally just have students add jingle bells and temple
blocks to the beat or the “clip-clop clip-clop” pattern to accompany the
song. This year I added a little bit more to my lesson,
discussing with my 2nd and 3rd graders the history of this song.
The songs’ lyrics were written by Lydia Marie Child, who was born in
Massachusetts in 1802. She first published
the poem in 1844, but it was actually titled “The New England Boy’s Song.” Later the melody was added and the name was
changed to how we know it today. The
novelist wrote this poem, recalling her childhood trips to her grandfather’s
house every Thanksgiving Day as a child.
As I told my students about this, they seemed to truly enjoy hearing about all
of the background and history. They asked lots of
great questions, like “How long did it take her to get to grandfather’s house?” My reply was “not too long,” as I knew she
grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and her grandfather lived in the same
town. After discussion, we added some
instruments: just rhythm instruments with Kindergarten and 1st grade
students, and rhythm and melody instruments with 2nd and 3rd
grade students. They loved it, and
although some classes seemed to sound much better than others (it always
happens), I was pleased.
When I first started planning for this Thanksgiving lesson, I got busy early
on, creating a presentation to supplement the lesson and to show students pictures
of the author, birthplace, etc. You can
check it out here.
I love this song so much that I even added a simple dance routine. My after-school Folk Dancing Club enjoyed it
as well! If you’re interested, here it
is:
Thanks so much for reading this, and I hope that it can help you in
some way in your classroom! Happy
Thanksgiving!
~Beth
Labels: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, Holidays, Kindergarten, Orff, Quotes & Inspiration, Teachers pay Teachers, Thanksgiving, TpT