Animals Galore

Each year after studying, "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", by Benjamin Britten, I take the 4th graders to see a live orchestra perform. We are fortunate enough to have a symphony nearby that puts on a free children's performance every January. This year, the performance was titled "Animals Galore". Selections included "The Firebird" by Stravinsky, "Spring" by Vivaldi, a piece featuring a high school violinist, the theme from "Jurassic Park", and "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns.

This is one of the most memorable experiences my students and I have each year. I love watching the reactions the children have when they see a double bass for the first time or when they giggle at the crazy conductor bouncing around on his podium. Some of them get so excited after a piece they want to stand up and cheer (but we've talked about concert etiquette, so they don't!).  For most of my students, this is the only experience they will ever have with a live fine-arts performance of any kind.

All of the excited 4th graders ready for the show to begin!

The orchestra tuning before the concert

Symphony Field Trip

Each year my 4th graders study the instruments of the symphony orchestra by learning about "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" by Benjamin Britten. After our unit ends, we take a field trip to the Minot Symphony Orchestra for their Children's Concert. Every year they feature a different work and this year just happened to be "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra"! The kids love seeing all of the instruments on stage and hearing them live. For some, this might be the only concert they ever attend, so I absolutely love taking this trip. We also talk a lot about concert etiquette. I don't want to brag, but I think we were one of the best-behaved schools there! Here are some pictures of the kids at the concert.

A Trip to the Symphony

Each year, I take my 4th graders to the Children's Symphony Concert nearby. We spend a month studying all of the instruments of the orchestra and what they sound and look like. Then, we spend the next week or so studying the featured piece the orchestra will be performing. This year, it was "Peter and the Wolf." To prepare for the concert, we listened to "Peter and the Wolf", watched the movie, and then did a creative writing project based on the story.

The writing project was to tell the story of "Peter and the Wolf" from the wolf's point of view (to prepare, we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka). The students had to explain why the wolf ate the duck and why he should be freed from the zoo. Some of the papers were very persuasive. Some of their reasons included: The wolf was getting a drink of water and accidentally swallowed the duck, the wolf had bad eyesight and thought the duck was a scoop of ice cream, the wolf was saving the duck from the hunters by hiding him in his belly, and the duck had a terribly bossy girlfriend so the wolf ate him to save him from her complaining! It was great to include some writing in music class (and meet Standard 8: Relationships between music and lanuguage arts!).

After all of this prep, we were finally able to hear "Peter and the Wolf" performed by a live orchestra. We had front row seats (literally), which I normally wouldn't want at a concert, but for this it was great because the students got to see most of the instruments up close. The overall favorite part of the concert was watching the "crazy" conductor! Before they performed "Peter and the Wolf", they also played the "Theme from Spiderman." The kids loved this! Then they got to see a high school saxophonist perform with the orchestra after winning a local music contest. Seeing someone so young perform a difficult piece from memory was very inspiring.

As you can tell, we had a great time. The positive response from the kids was overwhelming. They now have a different view of the symphony and realize that it can be "cool." Let's hope they remember this next year when they can join band!