Carnival Of the Animals: Part 1

Ah, spring! The weather gets gorgeous, life gets very busy, and students get antsy. I like to do a lot of movement lessons to counteract the craziness. Carnival of the Animals is perfect for this, and is a great way to review musical opposites and steady beat. Here’s what I do for the first few movements with my kiddos.

Lion listening map

Lion/Introduction

Focus: Steady beat                                          Prop: Hands, then scarves

Questions: How does a lion move? How would a lion keep a steady beat? When is there a “roar” in the music? How do you know?

For the introduction, students do “jazz hands” to show the piano line (and you try not to giggle at 25 5-year-olds doing jazz hands), then move their hands up and down in smooth motions for the strings. We don’t focus on this part as much, but the kids love to do it when we perform the Lion once we have the movements down.

For Lion, we start by finding the roar in the music. We add in an “I’m so proud of my roar” pose after each roar, and then find the steady beat. I like to have the kids move to a half note pulse so they have a little time to make their movements interesting. We talk about how lions move, and practice moving our shoulders and arms to make our lion walk more interesting. Students also explore levels, while moving and during the roar. Once students have practiced the dance in their own space, we move in a circle. Before each roar, a leader (teacher or later a student) calls out if the roar will face out, in, or up. This looks so cool! Once students are comfortable, we add in scarves.

Hens and Roosters

Focus: Short and long sounds             Prop: Hands, then scarves

Questions: Are most of the sounds long or short? When do you hear long sounds? When do you hear short sounds?

This movement is pretty simple: students “peck” towards the floor with hand-beaks during the short sounds, and freeze during the long note of the clarinet solo. (They could also freeze during the longer violin notes, but since there’s short notes as well I let them choose. AKA they keep going fast.) Once students are familiar and comfortable with the music, we upgrade our beaks to scarves. If students show they can be safe and not run, they move around the room. Students who run or are unsafe have to peck food from the chicken coop, a carpet square off to the side. With my visual, a student leader moves the star to show when students are moving and when they are frozen.

Donkey

Focus: Higher and lower                                 Prop: Mini animals, scarves

Questions: Does the melody stay on one note for very long? If the melody gets higher, does it start high or low? If the melody gets lower, does it start high or low?

This movement is great for higher and lower. After an initial listen, students draw an imaginary ladder on the floor. Depending on the class or grade, I sometimes give them paper glockenspiels instead. Students then take a mini animal (mine are from oriental trading) and have them move up and down the ladder depending on if the sound gets higher or lower. A student leader moves the donkey within the visual. We then move on to scarves, moving in the air instead of on the floor.

Tortoises

Focus: Fast and Slow, AB                                 Prop: Tinsel Wands

Questions: Is this music fast or slow? How are Tortoises and the Can-can similar and how are they different? The composer created Tortoises to be a musical joke. Why is it funny?

Man, I love this piece! We listen to the Can-Can first, since it was written first. Then we listen to the A section and compare the two. The piece is AB form, so that can also be a focus. The movement for the A section is two small circles and one larger, slower circle. That movement repeats the entire section. For the B section, students slowly trace geometric shapes. (This is an easy cross-curricular opportunity with art and math!) If students are really on the ball, I’ll let them trace create their own organic shapes. We use tinsel wands, but scarves can work as well.

Scarf Folding

I always have students fold their scarves before they put them away. We use the song below, though you could easily use another listening example as you fold.

Nutcracker Scarf and Wand Dances

I love December: Nutcracker time! My kids love it, and so do I. Every grade has a least one Nutcracker class every year, but primary grades focus on it the most. We focus on the story of the ballet first, and talk about the music. I focus on instruments and dynamics. Then we move on to dancing with scarves and wands.

Dance #1: Trepak

Ah, the good old Russian Dance. I love this one because it tires kids out. Perfect for a day (or a string of days) with indoor recess! Students are given 2 scarves, though 1 scarf will still work if your scarves are in short supply.

This dance is very simple. This is a good dance to practice with hands before you throw in the whole body, since the scarves are basically doing the same thing as your feet. For the A, we jump while we have our scarves go up and down. Then we kick while doing a similar motion with the scarves. For the B, we pulse our hands to the beat while we make a big circle in the air with the scarves. First we go clockwise, then counter-clockwise. For the bridge, we freeze on the strong beats. Below is the visual I use with the kids.

Dance #2: Chinese Dance

I love all three of these dances, but this is the one that is most likely to make me laugh out loud. This song has two basic phrases, so there are two basic movements: Frozen and swirling the scarves downward until you have your hands at your sides (think penguin walk) and tip-toeing around the room.

Dance #3: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

I love this song, and it is so iconic. But how do you get boys to dance to a “girly” song about a fairy? Tinsel wands, my friends. That’s how. I’m fairly sure they would be willing to walk around in sparkly pink toe shoes if it meant they got a tinsel wand. The wands are also easy to make: get a bunch of recorder cleaners that usually end up unused anyway, tie some long tinsel to the end, and cover it with tape. I covered quite a bit of mine, so students would know they shouldn't touch the wand above the tape line. I was worried at first that they wouldn't last long, but I still have wands from five years ago!

For this dance, students are put into two groups: the sneakers and the magical ones. The sneakers have scarves and the magical ones have tinsel wands. They take turns freezing while the other one gets to move.

When we are done, I always have kids fold their own scarves. Below is the echo song I use as we fold our scarves. (If you don’t want to have to use an echo song, you could always have them fold as you play March of the Soldiers instead.)