"The Nutcracker" begins on Christmas Eve. A small girl named Clara is celebrating the holiday season with her family. Her godfather gives her a small nutcracker doll, which she loves. After everyone goes to bed, Clara sneaks downstairs to the Christmas tree and falls asleep with the nutcracker in her arms. She awakens to find that the Nutcracker has come to life, and so have all the other toys in the living room. The Nutcracker leads his army of toy soldiers into battle against an army of mice and their leader, the Mouse King. The Nutcracker and his soldiers seem to be losing, until Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King and knocks him out, putting all the mice to flight. The Nutcracker turns into a prince and takes Clara to the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy greets them. After watching a celebration of dances, Clara awakens to find herself by the Christmas tree with the nutcracker doll.
Print out coloring sheets of characters from "The Nutcracker." This will include the Nutcracker, the Mouse King, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Clara. Allow the children to color them as they see fit, and let them cut out the characters if they're old enough to use safety scissors effectively. If not, you can do it for them beforehand. Instruct the children to glue their cutouts around their paper towel rolls. If you have time, attach a string or paper clip to the top rear edge of the roll so the children can hang them on their Christmas trees.
Have all the children collect pine cones from outside. Have them each bring a screw-on lid from a large juice bottle to class, and instruct each of them to pack their lids with modeling clay. Demonstrate turning a pine cone upside down to stick its base in the lid, and then have the children do it, too. Let the children apply white glue onto the edges of the pine cone with a small brush. Allow them to decorate their pine cone trees by placing glitter, beads and other small decorative materials onto the glue.
Have all the children stand up. Play a selection from "The Nutcracker" for them and explain that you are all going to move to the music. Play it once, and move accordingly to demonstrate what you want the children to do. The movements should be as simple and as clear as possible. Once you've demonstrated the movements, allow the children to join you, and continue to do the movements yourself at the front of the class.