Media Soundtrack to the Seasons
Feel like giving each season a personal playlist? This handy guide to keeping the classics with you all year round can help.
Featured Resources: Winter Holiday Traditions
Winter Holiday Traditions
Explore how the arts connect with our traditions and celebrations during the winter season
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Our featured resources focus on:
Winter Traditions
Though the weather outside may not yet be frightful, winter is coming. We’ve collected some great winter-themed digital resources for teaching and learning during the winter months and holidays.
First up, Soundtrack to the Seasons will help you create a custom playlist of seasonal music from classical composers.
Next, two multi-part audio stories celebrating two winter birthday boys: classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven (December 16) in Beethoven Rocks! and President Lincoln (February 12) in Abraham Lincoln and Music.
Next up are a variety of resources that touch on important winter events. Enjoy a live performance celebrating Hanukkah from musician Shayna Blass. Explore the Chinese New Year with our lesson for the K-2 classroom, Chinese New Year: Lion Dance Puppets. And last, our multi-part audio story Music and Football explores the connection between the gridiron and the arts in the build-up to the Super Bowl.
Explore the music of Christmas with four live performances recorded at the Kennedy Center: Washington National Opera Holiday with the Young Artists presents holiday-themed selections from the world of opera; Sweet Heaven Kings offers a high-energy gospel performance; enjoy an annual tradition with All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam; and finally, watch a light-hearted presentation of holiday classics from Beltway Brass.
For many, Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is a holiday tradition. Our Storytelling Through Dance lesson for grades 3-5 will challenge your students to use movement in place of words to re-tell this tale. And Cracking Open the Nutcracker will explore the many staged versions of the ballet through the adaptations of numerous choreographers.
If you address Presidents’ Day in your classroom, we’ve got some great resources with which to engage your students. Picturing the Presidency explores the important job of presidential photographer and the history-making images they capture. Who Can Vote for President?, a lesson for grades 3-5, has students create a timeline of the history of voting in the United States, as well as analyze and create campaign posters. Art in Camelot is a collection of audio stories that investigates the role the arts played in the Kennedy White House. And for students in grades 9-12, Drawing Political Cartoons encourages critical analysis of the way cartoonists express opinions on current events.
Finally, for Valentine’s Day we have a collection of resources focused on love. Chivalry and Courtly Love, a lesson for grades 9-12, explores how the concepts are presented in art and media. Shakespeare’s Sonnet #18 breaks down one of the bard’s most well-known poems. Perfect Harmony explores how love is expressed in music. And for those times when it just doesn’t work out, Your Brain on Music: Tearjerkers helps us understand why some music just sounds sad.
Explore our robust collection of lessons, media, and articles, organized by grade and subject.
We would love to hear your feedback on this collection, as well as your ideas for future collections. And if you have ideas about curating a collection of Kennedy Center Education resources, let us know! We’d love to share your expertise with our educator community.
Featured Resources: Winter Holiday Traditions
Media Beethoven Rocks!
This multimedia series gives you an introduction to the life and work of the Classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
Media Abraham Lincoln and Music
Explore President Lincoln’s taste in music. The three parts address Lincoln’s love of the theater and popular music as well as the impact that music had on his political campaigns and presidency and the Civil War.
Millennium Stage
Shayna Blass
Wed. Dec. 18, 2019
Singer/songwriter, producer, and actress Shayna Blass will headline our annual Millennium Stage Hanukkah performance.
Lesson Chinese New Year: Lion Dance Puppets
In this K-2 lesson, students will learn the history of the Chinese Lion Dance and create lion head puppets to perform in a parade. Students will learn about the traditional dance, the costumes that are worn, and the music that accompanies the dance performance.
Media Music and Football
Music and football: what could the connection possibly be? But think about it, there's music at halftime, we sing fight songs up in the stands, and when isn't there music when we watch football highlights on TV? Music and football are intertwined, as we'll hear in this series, narrated by NFL Films composer Tom Hedden.
Millennium Stage
Washington National Opera
Holidays with the Young Artists
Thu. Dec. 12, 2019 6 p.m
Members of the WNO’s Cafritz Young Artists program perform a selection of holiday opera works.
Millennium Stage
Sweet Heaven Kings
Sat. Dec. 14, 2019 6 p.m.
Anacostia’s acclaimed 16-member gospel brass and percussion band Sweet Heaven Kings present their annual holiday program.
Millennium Stage
All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam
Wed. Dec. 25, 2019
Join in the 21st annual All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam, a Millennium Stage tradition, with host and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, drummer Lenny Robinson, trumpeters Robert Redd and Tom Williams, bassist James King, and vocalist Delores King Williams.
Millennium Stage
The Beltway Brass
Tue. Dec. 24, 2019
The Beltway Brass plays a variety of holiday favorites in their own jazzy, not-too-classical way. Expect some extremely fashionable Christmas sweaters as well.
Lesson Storytelling Through Dance
In this grade 3-5 lesson, students will analyze how ballet dancers in The Nutcracker act out the story/character with movement instead of words. Students will emotionally and physically tell a story through dance and pantomime.
Media Cracking Open The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is arguably the most popular ballet of all time. It is often performed during the holiday season, and has inspired countless variations, especially in the USA. Ever wonder why?
Media Picturing the Presidency
Shadowing the president is difficult, but White House photographers must capture every moment for history
Lesson Who Can Vote for President?
In this 3-5 lesson, students will create a timeline reflecting the history of voting in the United States. Students will analyze the design of campaign posters and their influence on voter participation in presidential elections. They will apply elements and principles of design to create original “vote posters.”
Media Art in Camelot
This series marks the 50th anniversary of a remarkable presidency by exploring the impact the Kennedy years had on the creative lives of people in America and around the world.
Lesson Drawing Political Cartoons
In this 9-12 lesson, students will analyze cartoon drawings to create an original political cartoon based on current events. Students will apply both factual knowledge and interpretive skills to determine the values, conflicts, and important issues reflected in political cartoons.
Lesson Chivalry and Courtly Love
In this 9-12 lesson, students will explore the Arthurian codes of chivalry and courtly love as portrayed in art, modern films, books, and poetry. Students will write a script, create scenery, and act out a short thematic play demonstrating modern concepts of love, friendship, and honorable behavior.
Media Shakespeare's Sonnet #18
Need the right words for Valentine's Day? Let the great poets, writers, and thinkers share their thoughts
Media Perfect Harmony
Nothing sings romance like a love song. And people have been singing them for thousands of years.
Media Your Brain on Music: Tearjerkers
Warning: this article contains excerpts from some of the saddest pieces of music ever written.
Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning
Eric Friedman
Director, Digital Learning
Kenny Neal
Manager, Digital Education Resources
Tiffany A. Bryant
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement
JoDee Scissors
Content Specialist, Digital Learning
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Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;
Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..
The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.