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.

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).

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!