Two Simple, High-Impact Thanksgiving Music Lessons (Perfect for the Week Before Break!)

Two No-Prep Thanksgiving Music Lessons for Elementary Music: Bear Says Thanks & Sharing the Bread

If you teach elementary music, you know the days before Thanksgiving break can be wild. You want lessons that are:

  • actually musical

  • low-prep (or no-prep!)

  • movement-rich

  • and tied to gratitude, family, and community

So I put together two Thanksgiving lesson plans that check all those boxes:

  • Bear Says Thanks – best for Kindergarten through 2nd/3rd grade

  • Sharing the Bread – best for 2nd/3rd through 5th/6th grade

Both lessons use picture books, rhythm play-alongs, scarf dances, and built-in assessments (digital + printable), so you can literally open the slides and go.

Let me walk you through each one.

Watch a Full Video Walk-Through Here~

Let’s Get Started

Lesson 1: Bear Says Thanks (K–2/3)

Steady Beat, Simple Rhythms, Solfege & Stepwise Singing

I always start my younger students with a quick scarf dance to get the wiggles out and the music in their bodies.

You can use any of my autumn scarf dances on YouTube (like the ones set to Vivaldi’s Autumn), and if you grab the full lesson, the video is linked directly in the slides. It’s a super easy, no-prep way to bring classical music and movement into your Thanksgiving lesson.

1. Warm-Up: Do, Mi, So (and Friends)

Before opening the book, we do a quick solfege review:

  • do, mi, so (and sometimes re, fa)

  • Curwen hand signs

  • mixed patterns that students have to identify by sight and then show with their hands

I love using animations in slideshow mode so only one note appears at a time—it keeps visual learners engaged and avoids overwhelming everyone at once.

2. Read the Story & Add Steady Beat

The book Bear Says Thanks (Karma Wilson, Jane Chapman) is just made for the elementary music room.

Bear wants to have a feast, but his cupboards are bare. As his friends arrive with food, he keeps saying (and sometimes singing), “Thanks!”

We:

  • Read a few pages

  • Add steady beat on “He looked through his cupboard. The cupboard is bare.” using acorn icons for beat taps

  • Invite students to come tap the beats on the board

It’s simple, musical, and immediately tied to the text.

3. Rhythm Play: Pie, Muffins & “Bear Says Thanks”

Next, we layer in basic rhythm analysis using ta and ti-ti:

  • “And the bear says thanks”

  • “Muffins and pie, oh my!”

Students:

  • drag rhythms to match the correct treat

  • complete simple patterns (muffin, pie, muffin, pie)

  • clap or jump the rhythms if they need to move

I always make sure that, digitally, only the rhythms and icons I want them to touch are clickable—because if you know, you know.

5. Collecting Treats & Sorting Rhythms

As more animals arrive (Badger with fish, Gopher and Mole with honey nuts, Raven with pears, Wren and Owl with tea), students:

  • click acorns to hear patterns

  • drag stars to match the correct stepwise or rhythmic pattern

  • then “add” that treat to the feast by clicking the blanket

At the end, they drag animals like Bear, Owl, Mole, Gopher, Wren into either a ta or ti-ti box, sorting names by syllable rhythm.

You can finish off this lesson with my simple Thanksgiving rhythm play-along (only ta and ti-ti), where students build their own Thanksgiving feast using food rhythms—perfect for K–2.

Grab These Lessons- Plus Our Entire Curriculum For One Free Month!

Try a Free Month Today

Lesson 2: Sharing the Bread

Mixed Rhythms, Dynamics, Play-Along & Composition

For older grades, I love using Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story as a full mixed-rhythm and dynamics lesson that still feels story-based and cozy.

Again, I start with a more challenging scarf dance (like the Vivaldi concerto scarf routine), just to get everyone moving and ready to focus.

1. Rhythm Warm-Up: Gravy vs. Rolls, Turkey vs. Sweet Potato

We begin with simple patterns:

  • identify which rhythm fits “gravy” vs. “rolls”

  • clap and tap along while reading the story

  • add a tika-tika for words like “turkeys” and “sweet potatoes”

This gives us a natural entry point into sixteenth-note rhythms.

2. Mixed Rhythm Visuals (Tika-Ti & Ti-Tika)

Like in many of my upper elementary lessons, I use clear visuals to show mixed rhythms:

  • break apart tika-ti or ti-tika

  • show which part looks like titi and which looks like tika-tika

  • have students clap, speak, and move to the patterns

We don’t dump them into a full line right away—just small, manageable rhythmic chunks.

3. Everyone Gets a Job: Assigning Rhythms to Actions

In the story, each family member has a job:

  • fetch

  • heat

  • knead the bread

  • work

  • careful

  • together

We assign rhythmic patterns to each word or phrase, then put them together:

Fetch, heat, knead the bread,
Work together till we’re fed.

Students see how the small chunks they practiced become part of a full chant.

We also use drag-and-drop practice for things like baste, boil, bake a treat, and add those patterns to the mix.

4. Layering Parts: Your Choice of Challenge

Here’s where you can differentiate:

  • Easier version: keep the whole class together doing one chant at a time

  • More challenging version: split the room into two groups

    • Group A – “Fetch, heat, knead the bread…”

    • Group B – “Baste, boil, bake a treat…”

You can eventually layer three patterns at once if your students are ready.

This works beautifully with percussion or body percussion.

5. Digital & Printable Worksheets (Quick, Cheeky Assessment)

Throughout the lesson, students can also:

  • drag rhythms into correct spots for words like mash, food, love, pour, rest

  • identify which rhythm “does not fit” in a pattern

  • fix the mistake and reinsert the correct rhythm

You can use:

  • the digital version (great for 1:1 or centers),

  • or the printable version (great for quick exit tickets or whole-group checking).

Either way, you get built-in data without interrupting the flow of the story.

6. Thanksgiving Rhythm Play-Along (Level 2)

Everything builds toward my Thanksgiving Rhythm Play-Along Level 2, which uses:

  • mixed sixteenth-note patterns

  • more complex combinations like “cranberries and gravy,” “macaroni and hot chocolate,” “cranberries and apple pie”

And, just like the younger version, there’s a speed round:

  • Students get 5 seconds to decide which pattern matches “bread basket,” “pie,” “turkey,” etc.

  • They add each successful rhythm to the Thanksgiving table until it’s completely full.

Your rhythm-loving kids and your competitive ones will be all in.

7. Add Dynamics & a Simple Composition Task

To round it out, we touch on dynamic contrast:

  • baby resting = piano

  • someone shouting = forte

  • mezzo-piano and other subtle shifts

Students connect story moments to volume and expression, and we reinforce it with visuals and rhythm.

To finish, they get a chance to compose a short tradition phrase using their own family or holiday traditions:

  1. Write a simple sentence about a tradition (any winter/holiday tradition, not just Thanksgiving).

  2. Decide which rhythms they hear.

  3. Notate the rhythms using the mixed patterns we’ve been practicing.

It’s a low-pressure way to make the learning personal and musical at the same time.

Why These Two Thanksgiving Lessons Work So Well

  • No-Prep / Low-Prep: videos, slides, and worksheets are ready to go

  • Story-Based: picture books keep even tired pre-break brains engaged

  • Movement-Rich: scarf dances + rhythm actions = less chaos, more focus

  • Musically Deep: steady beat, ta/ti-ti, mixed rhythms, dynamics, solfege, stepwise singing

  • Built-In Assessment: digital + printable options let you collect data without stopping the fun

  • Bear Says Thanks is perfect for younger students learning steady beat, ta/ti-ti, simple patterns, and stepwise singing.

  • Sharing the Bread is ideal for older students ready for mixed rhythms, layered parts, and more complex play-alongs.

Final Thoughts~

Final Thoughts:
As Thanksgiving break approaches, I hope these two lessons give you an easy, joyful way to keep your students moving, singing, and truly making music—without adding to your workload. Bear Says Thanks and Sharing the Bread offer just the right mix of story, rhythm, and hands-on engagement for any age group. I’m grateful you’re here, and I hope these ideas help bring warmth, gratitude, and musical fun into your classroom this season.

Happy playing,
Leanna O’Brien
Founder of The Soaring Scarves Academy

Check Out Some of Our Other Articles Here!

Post Views: 912

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *