Carnival of the Animals

In 1st grade, we study the "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens. After listening to each animal, we do a movement activity to help us remember each piece. Here are some ideas of what we do.

Lion: I print off some pictures of lions that I put on popsicle sticks for this kids. Every time they hear the lion roar, they raise their lion high in the air. During the bouncy parts, they bounce their lion around on their hands to the steady beat.

Roar!!

Hens and Roosters: I divide the class into 2 groups; hens (girls) and roosters (boys). They stand in 2 lines facing each other. When the girls hear the hens in the music, they quietly pretend to talk to one another. When the boys hear the roosters, they try to get the girls' attention in some way. No talking is allowed, but it's so fun to watch the boys try to distract the girls.

Mules: We run in place as fast as we can moving up and down and then collapse at the end. The main point of this one is to make the kids as tired as possible! Ha!

Toroises: Dance in slow motion.

The Elephant: I pair up the kids and teach them a simple waltz step. They love it!

Kangaroos: During the staccato parts, we hop around the room like kangaroos. When it is legato, we stand still, and look around, trying to decide where to go next.

Aquarium: We get out the ribbons and do gentle ribbon dances. Their motions need to be smooth and slow. Otherwise, I have a great listening map that I use from the Music Express Magazine. We use different instruments to represent the changes in the music.

Animals With Long Ears: We count the number of Hee-haws.

Cuckoo: I pair the kids up with one squatting behind the other. On the cuckoo call, the child in the back pops up and sings So-Mi!

Pianists: I have a music rug with piano keys as the trim. The kids love to pretend to play the piano on the rug while listening to this one.

Fossils: We play this like a game of Red Light, Green Light. The kids are dinosaurs that come to life and move when they hear the xylophone. I have my back to them, and turn around when there is no xylophone, trying to catch them moving.

The Swan: We simply sit with our eyes closed and enjoy the beautiful music!

Finale: The kids love this video. In fact, I usually show it before we start the book and then show it again at the end.
Carnival of the Animals

The very last day, we do a "quiz". I have a coloring book for each of the kids with a picture for each piece. I then go through and play each of the pieces and they must point to the picture that matches the piece being played.