FINGER PLAY: 5 Days of Christmas
Printables (.pdf)
Activity Instructions:
Teacher use printable. Look through the printable pictures, talk about what each of the first five are. Teacher point to the pictures, but parents and children should use their fingers to count as we go through the song. We are intentionally only going up to five. Feel free to repeat and count on one hand then the other hand.
Lyrics:On the first day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
On the second day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
On the third day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
On the fourth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree1
On the fifth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days after Christmas). The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin.The standard tune now associated with it is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who first introduced the now familiar prolongation of the verse “five gold rings”. [from Wikipedia] The time signature of this song is not constant.