Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter- a book to kick off Winter Music Lessons

Books are a good and easy way to bring seasonal content into the music room. Plus, you can often find various music concepts you can teach with the books. At the beginning of winter, I like to use Kenard Pak’s book, Goodbye Autumn and Hello Winter. 
While this would be a great lesson on the first day of Winter, I am often too busy coordinating the Christmas Concert- or already off on winter break, that I save it and use the book when we return to school in January. 

So, how do I use this book in my classroom? Check out this FREE lesson pack and try it with your students!

What do you like to do in winter?
First, we read the book, then we discuss all the different things students like to do in winter and brainstorm a list as a class. I really try to encourage the students to include activities that they can only do in the winter. 

Once we have made the list, we try to figure out the rhythm of each of the activities and sort them into 1 sound, 2 sound, 3 sound, and 4 sound. If students need support to come up with winter activities, we look through the winter activities in the PowerPoint lesson pack.

Turn it into a song 
After brainstorming our list, we put it to the side as this will make the B section of our song, then we learn the A section:

Winter, winter let’s go play 
Having fun this snowy day 
Snow is falling down so fast 
Winter fun is here at last!

Once students know the A section, we begin learning the B section- which has solo singing in it
The whole class sings What do you like to do in winter
The individual students sing I like ___________. 
They fill in the blank by singing a winter activity that they enjoy.​

Let’s Add Instruments
Glockenspiels are the perfect instrument to add to this song. They sound sparkly, like snow falling. I have students add glockenspiels at the beginning of each measure. The first note in each measure is either a sol or a do, so I have students play the note that matches the beginning of each measure.
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We don’t add boomwhackers during the B section of the song. Adding the glockenspiels is a good way to extend this book-based lesson to the older grades

Talk about Changes 
Just like how the seasons change, music also has changes. For instance, our Winter Fun Song had changed because the pattern was ABA- the “B” section differed from the A section. 

At this point,, we have a brief mini-lesson on form. Essentially, I tell my students that lots of classical music have ABA form (also known as Ternary form), which is like a pattern, like the Winter Fun song we created as a class. 

We will then listen to some classical examples as a class, and I will have students move through the sections differently. 

Assessment and Extensions
There are a few different outcomes I may assess with this lesson 

• Rhythm Identification: Can students recognize and sort winter words by their rhythm
• Solo Sing: Can students sing independently and match pitch while they sing what their favourite winter activity is
• Play instruments accurately: Can students play instruments correctly to accompany the song

2 Great extensions for this activity are Snowball Fight Composition and Winter Composition.

Make sure you grab your FREE lesson pack for Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter to use in your classroom! 

Enjoy! 
Jayna