Bringing Carnival of the Animals to Life
This exciting, hands-on arts integration Teaching Artist Residency presented by Stephanie Daige uses Camille Saint-Saëns’ work Carnival of the Animals to teach students how music is used to convey characteristics of different animals. Students will learn the vocabulary words pitch, timbre, and tempo, and discuss how these elements are used to portray the movement of different animals. Students will also hear poetry which relates to the work and identify rhyming words. The students will create masks and puppets to represent the animals and use them to move to the music in the style of each animal. For the fossils movement, the students will use modeling material to create their own “fossils,” and we will discuss how we know about animals that lived long ago through their fossils. Students will learn how sounds are created through vibration, and how each instrument creates sound in a unique way. Worksheets and a simple creative writing assignment can also be provided for an optional follow-up activity.