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The Second Holiday Gift

My Christmas break has officially begun and I have one last idea from my classroom to share with you before my celebration with friends and families begins. For the past several years, I have made recordings of my students as a Christmas gift for their parents. This year I recorded my students reciting the lyrics to “Away in a Manger.”

To create the audio recording, I used GarageBand on my Mac, plugged in a headset, and had each child take a turn reciting one line from the song. There were no lines to memorize: I would simply say the line and the student would repeat it after me. I would do this 2-3 times for each student to ensure that I had a high quality recording of each. Then I set to the task of editing and trimming the individual recordings and merging them into the entire song. I discovered a lovely instrumental version of Away in a Manger by Mae Robertson (in addition to creating beautiful music, Mae is a Mac girl and her blog offers quick and simple tech tips for Mac users.) I purchased and downloaded Mae’s version of the song and set it as the backdrop for the class recording. The finished product couldn’t be more sweet.
this teacher recorded students reciting the lyrics to "Away in a Manger" as a gift for parents.
I created and printed the CD insert on white cardstock and my students colored the picture for their parents. The reverse side of the insert presents the song lyrics with the student-reader’s name beside each phrase. (These are not actually the names of any of my students).
Away-in-a-Manger-lyrics-pic
The parents in my classroom are each receiving an audio CD of the completed recording, but I wanted to share it with you as well!

The music was recorded by Mae Robertson. Guitars by Guitars by Jim Ohlschmidt and Pete Huttlinger. Song used with permission.

God Bless and have a very Merry Christmas!

More Christmas Inspiration

Looking for more festive holiday fun? Be sure to check out these blogs posts. They are filled with fun and exciting ideas and moments from my classroom to help get you in the Christmas spirit.

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Maria Gavin

Maria is a former kindergarten and first grade teacher, with 13 years of teaching experience. Her love and passion for all things early childhood is now fulfilled as a mom to two amazing kids. She loves sharing practical and creative tips and ideas that are perfect for young learners – in the classroom or at home!

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26 Responses

  1. I love this idea and wanted to do something similar for my Kindergarten class. Would you consider making this an item available for us all? It would be great to have this cd sleeve to print out. Thanks for your consideration.

  2. Oh my, this is perfect! My class and the 1st grade are singing Away In the Manger for the pageant. Would you please consider posting the cd cover and lyrics as a printable? Thank you for this wonderful idea!!

    1. Hi, I’m so sorry for my delayed response. I created the file in Pages on my Mac and it isn’t an easy task to convert that file into an editable version that I can easily share with a PC user. I don’t have time to rebuild the file as an editable version that can be used in other classrooms at this time. I’m sorry!

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Hi, I'm Maria.

I’m a former kindergarten teacher turned work-from-home mom. I still love sharing ideas and resources to make teaching easier, so you can focus on what really matters in the classroom. When I’m not working on the blog, you’ll find me chasing kids around the house with a cold cup of coffee in my hand (some things never change even once you’re out of the classroom!)

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