Title – Students Make Up The Twelve Days of Christmas

By – Laurie Kelly

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Secondary Subjects – Music

Grade Level – K-5

Materials: Chart paper, marker

Objectives: Use ordinal numbers; read new words (optional: point out spelling patterns); practice using memory.

Directions:

Get students into a circle of chairs with the chart paper visible. Sing the original “Twelve Days of Christmas” for them. Tell students that they will choose twelve things they’d like to have for Christmas and substitute those items. Write “On the _________ day of Christmas, my parents gave to me __________________.” Write the ordinal numbers First through Twelfth on the chart paper. Record the twelve items they choose under “First,” “Second,” etc. up to “Twelfth”. Sing the new version of the song several times. Then, hide the chart paper. Have students go around the circle clockwise. The first person sings, “On the first day of Christmas, my parents gave to me a ____________.” The next person sings, “On the second day of Christmas my parents gave to me two _________________ and a _____________ (the first item)” The next student in the circle sings, “On the third day of Christmas my parents gave to me three _________________, two _________________ and a ________________.” Continue in that pattern. When you’ve reached the thirteenth student, have them start over with the first day of Christmas

Students usually have a lot of fun doing this. The teacher can give clues for students who have trouble recalling parts of the song.

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Laurie Kelly

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