I’m loving this fun activity to help you teach Silent Night (archives) in Singing Time! It’s perfectly thematic and will help the Primary children visualize the melody and quickly learn the song and lyrics.
This is a great Christmas song for Singing Time to keep in your back pocket for when you’re asked to sing for a Christmas party and weren’t prepared. Teach the first verse and let the audience join in for future verses!

Silent Night Melody Map
Sing through Silent Night (flip chart here) once, before introducing this activity.
Post the Silent Night melody map up on the board and ask the children what they notice. They might mention the stars, the colors, the lines, the doodles, or other things.
Sing through the song together as you invite the children to try to decode the meaning of the melody map.
After each time through the song you can talk through one of the things the children noticed and see if it fits the meaning of the melody map. For example:
- Stars – Represent notes of the melody
- Line – Represent the flow of the music through the song as your voice raises and lowers with the melody
- Doodles – Helps to set the scene of a silent night. What do we see at night? They also have one doodle per line of the song!

Extension Activities:
- Shuffle up the pages and have the children help you put the melody map back into the correct order.
- Invite a helper to hold a star wand and lead the music up and down following the flow of the melody map.
- Stand and raise and lower your stance along with the notes to add some fun movement for 1-2 times singing through the song.

- Sing higher and lower in volume with the rise and fall of the notes!
- Add a fun silly way to sing that will switch with each page or with each star doodle (line of the song and half a page).
- Add egg shakers or jingle bells. Shake once on each star and steady shake on the notes that are held out.
For another fun similar activity, head over to see this Easter Hosanna singing time activity!
Silent Night Printable Song Helps
This free in-post printable includes the melody map of the first verse of Silent Night!

Join INSTANT Primary Singing for extended printables including additional verses, without doodles and without lyrics, plus black and white version! You’ll find these bonus files included when Silent Night is the featured song of the month.
Get more out of singing time with the INSTANT Primary Singing membership that includes printable lesson plans, tons of extended printables and an ad-free experience for each featured song of the month, or get immediate access to the entire song list for the year!
Learn more about INSTANT Primary Singing membership options here!
Have questions or need more help, see this FAQ page here.
For another fun and engaging way to teach this song, continue over to this Silent Night Finger Lights lesson plan!
What other fun ways will you use this melody map singing time activity in your Primary room?