Okay, my fellow teachers, musicians, and friends, we need your help! Would you be willing to judge my student’s lyrics for our lyric writing contest this year? Here are the details:
Our Christmas recital theme is “My Favorite Things” and each student was asked to write new lyrics to that tune that is in every elementary Christmas book, but which no student ever knows. You know the one…Good King Wenceslas, or better known as “Good King W” in my studio. The original lyrics tell a great story, but again one that no one knows, so I thought it would be fun to show the students that they could be lyricists as well as musicians. I asked them to write a verse about some of their favorite things at Christmas time. I will have someone sing the winning lyrics at our Christmas program while 2 of my older students accompany them using lead sheets, which is a skill we have worked a lot on in the last 6 months.
I divided the students into 2 age groups: 6-11 and 12-19. Would you help choose a winner from both groups? To do so, simply take a look at the music/lyrics and leave a comment about which number you like for the older students and which you like for the younger students. Please simply choose the best lyrics (whether they are about things you like or not) for the music. In all cases, you will have to mentally insert a few eighth notes to make the lyrics work, but it should be self explanatory.
I have to say this was a super fun activity and I loved how I could see the personalities of each student in their lyrics. They were quite creative!
Thank you for helping me find a winner! Here are the 2 pieces of music with all the verses to choose from. Please leave a comment about which verse you like best for both the elementary and older students. Thanks!
Elementary Students_Good King W
*Thumbnail image by Gryffindor
for the elementary group, I liked number 4. what a fun idea! I think I’ll steal this to do with my students.
Elementary – #4
Older – #1
Great job, one and all!
In the elementary category, my favorite lyric was #4, about the gingerbread who was naughty, even though he was “just a cookie!” I could “see” in my mind just what the gingerbread man looked like, and he sounded pretty tasty, too!
In the older students category, I simply could not decide between #4 and #5! They both were fresh and funny! I have to declare a tie between 4 and 5. Am I allowed to do that? 🙂
Number 4 was funny and I loved the surprise ending! I have never dressed as Santa, but now I know what it might be like. I could imagine itchy tape on my face!
Number 5 was also very funny, and candid in asking questions about why do we do all these things like jingling at Christmas time, and admitting that we just might get tired of all these songs after a while. I liked the repeated words of “jingling and jingling” and “decking and decking.”
Now I am going to go and read what other people wrote!
Elementary: #2 Christmas Time by Ellie
Older: #2 The True Reason by Sarah
Thank you for sharing the spirit of Christmas! What fun to sing along to a familiar melody with lyrics from your students! Great Job to all!
For the elementary, I chose #4 – what an image the author conjured up. Bravo!
For the older students, I chose #2 – I appreciated addressing the materialistic aspect of Christmas while keeping the focus on the true reason for this special time of year.
Kudos to all your students for sharing their thoughts and desires for Christmas!
Elementary: #1
Older kids: #5
Love the creativity!
Elementary: #4
Older: #5
BTW, we call it “Good King Whats-his-name” !
with the younger kids, my two favorites were vs. 4 and vs. 5
in the older group it was verse 2 and verse 5
They were all very clever. I think I liked these because of how well they fit the music as well as being very true.
I think all your students are to be commended for a great job!
Wow, I love the idea. Great creativity. I vote for verse one on each of the categories. .
I like #4 Emily & #5 Jana. What a great idea!
Ooo, this is fun! Here are my votes:
Elementary: #4 “Little Gingerbread”
Older Kids: #5 “Christmas Songs”
Oooh… I like #4 for elementary… love the bit about him being naughty! And #4 for the older kids, too… creative idea and the braces thing is cute.
Elementary #4
Older Kids: #4
They both stood out to me as the most imaginative and creative!
Karen emailed me to say, “Your students did a wonderful job. They are all very creative. The lyrics that I like best were #5 Michael (younger students) and #2 Sarah (older students). What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.”
This is too fun!!! (Although after reading through all of these lyrics, I’m pretty sure I’ll have this tune stuck in my head for the rest of the night!)
Here are my votes:
Elementary – #4
Advanced – #5
Congratulations to ALL of your very creative students!!
What a great job your students did on the lyrics!!
For the older students, I vote #3 “Christmas” by Bethany and for the younger students I vote #1 “Snowmen and Cookies” by Abbie
Happy Holidays!
Well done students, all very clever and creative – so difficult to choose!
Finally decided on……
Elementary: Emily’s ‘Little Gingerbread’
Older: Chloe’s ‘Christmas Pleasures’
What a brilliant idea!
Just as well we are performing this carol as an instrumental ensemble at our Christmas concert – if we were singing it I’d definitely slip into the gingerbread lyrics 🙂
Elementary #4
Older #2
How fun!
These are great Wendy! I vote for Elementary #4 and Older Kids a tie between #4 and #5. This song is definitely on my list of songs I know only because it shows up in all of the elementary books. 🙂
Elem. #4
Adv. #5
What a terrific activity. Thank you for the inspiration you share!
Joanne emailed to vote for the “gingerbread cookie” one.
Have to vote for number 2 in the older, but also loved number 4.
For the younger children, my vote is for number 4.
What a great idea!
It is hard to choose. They are all good. I guess I pick 2 and 2..
I chose #4 by Emily in the younger group and #2 by Sarah in the older group. It was interesting to see the different ideas that were presented.