A Nutcracker Collaboration

Our music teacher came to see me one day, excited about the grants she obtained to take the entire 2nd grade district-wide to see the Nutcracker.  This fabulous experience would be absolutely FREE for students and she wanted to know if I would like to collaborate with her.  Of course!

Quick aside and brief disclosure: I danced in a ballet company, taught dance for 14 years, and don't remember a time when I didn't dance, so I was beside myself with excitement.

A rare pic from my former career 

We decided that I would share the story of the Nutcracker during library time and create centers for students to further explore three pieces from the Nutcracker:

  • March
  • Trepak
  • Waltz of the Flowers  
She would have the students further experience the three musical pieces during music class and they would produce a written reflection in their classrooms.  My most exciting collaborative venture was a 2nd grade teacher that had expressed interest in coding.  We talked about how we could take the written reflections and code these using Scratch Jr.  We were ready.

When students came to library we began by discussing how the ballet would tell a story but not in the traditional sense, with words.  We talked about how the dancers would tell the story with their dancing.  We watched a short video of the Nutcracker story that would give them a brief synopsis and sense of what they would be seeing.

Next, I introduced the centers:

  • Reading station: Read different versions of the Nutcracker

  • Trepak: Paper plate movement activity *This was by far the most popular activity and students laughed, smiled, and repeated this over and over.


  • Trepak: Watch Russian Trepak and respond "What are some words that describe what you hear? See?"

  • March - Watch listening map video and identify which instrument you would like to play





  • Waltz - Compare and contrast four different versions - what do you see that is the same? different?





Students were instructed to participate in activities in at least 2 out of the 3 musical pieces. I created an exit ticket with check boxes so they could check off and assess their participation.


Following a visit to Library and Music classes, students were ready to go on their field trip and see the Nutcracker. Their next activity would be to write about their favorite scene from the production. One class even retold this scene using Scratch Jr. Our journey continues on the next post.

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