Songs You Already Know: "In the Stable"




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  My son (currently age 8), when he was in preschool, learned this cute song for a Christmas program.  It was such a favorite that he taught it to me, and we still enjoy singing it around the house during the Christmas season.  I have not been able to find the resource where this cute song can be found. 

Here are coloring pages to go with each verse; it would be a great idea to print the words of each verse along with the coloring page picture.  For your students who love to color (My five year old daughter is one of those!) they will be delighted to have a picture to color while learning the song.  For those students who do not enjoy coloring (such as my son!), they will still have a good visual representation of each verse to help them learn the words.

All around the sky that night,

The angel light was beaming.
Every shepherd said to himself
"Hey, I must be dreaming!"


The Angel said,

"Do not be afraid, you are not in any danger
Jesus Christ the Savior's been born;
Go see him in the manger."
Every shepherd hurried to town

As fast as they were able
They found God's Son asleep on the hay
Where? In the stable!

Song You Already Know: "Pop Goes the Weasel"
 

More Christmas Music Books

Included in my Caroling post were two books I use as resources for Christmas music: The Usbourne Book of Christmas Carols and Wee Sing for Christmas.  In addition to these two books, here are three more beautiful and useful books for Christmas carols from my collection.  I've had these for so long that they are really inexpensive to buy used at this point, and you know the music is going to be back in style each December!

Caroling (outside of the school setting)

Sometimes, when you are a music teacher, you are asked to help out with musical tasks in other venues.  Sunday Schools, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Brownies, Girl Scouts, and church youth groups are some organizations that you may be part of, and they also enjoy Christmas caroling at this time of year!

In the public school setting, we focus on the most secular of Christmas tunes for caroling.  On the other hand, caroling with groups outside of the school setting gives us a chance to broaden the repetoire of music to include the beautiful sacred songs of the season.  If you are caroling to residents of nursing homes or elderly neighbors, the sacred songs are the ones that they enjoy the most.  I love to see when the people we are visiting sing right along with us!

Children's Literature for Christian Music Ed: "One More River"

Joan Paley has adapted and beautifully illustrated the spiritual "One More River" in this book suitable for use in a Christian early childhood setting or Sunday school.

With our young students, this lengthy song going to be too challenging to sing all the way through.  Approach it as a call-and-response song, with the teacher as leader singing the verses (call) and the students always singing "There's one more river to cross." (response)

It will be useful to play a recording of "One More River" as the children are coming to class, or perhaps during their playtime.  As a teacher in a Christian school, or Sunday school, collect CDs of Bible songs, hymns, and children's Christian music for use in your classroom.  Hearing the music often will help them get the tune in their ear even before you introduce the song. And since there are so many great hymns out there, the children will be exposed to the music even if you don't get a chance to teach it directly.