3 ‘Never Thought Of’ Ways To Introduce The Carnival Of The Animals To Tweens

by | Homeschool Music, Middle School Music Activities, Music Appreciation, Musical Activities For Kids

See below for a Free Printable Pack to go with the post.

When I say Carnival of the Animals and Tweens in the same sentence, most homeschool moms look at me in surprise. 

Yes, that is correct. 

Camille Saint Saens’ Carnival of the Animals is not only for little kids, when combined with age appropriate activities, the composition can be used to introduce tweens and even teens to music appreciation. 

In today’s post I will focus especially on tweens, even though some of the ideas suggested here can also be used to engage teens in learning to appreciate music. 

Don’t forget to download the worksheets I have made available to help increase your tween’s engagement with the composition and the composer. 

 

Compare Movements

It is important to ensure that your tween listens to all the movements first. So make sure to create a playlist and ask him to listen to all the movements. 

Next, ask him to select two movement (favourite and least favourite, or first and last, or lion and elephant etc) and compare the two. 

How should he compare them?

He can use the worksheets I have made available and the prompts should get him started immediately. 

 

Instruments

As you may already know each of the movements depicts a different set of animals. 

In this activity you can ask your tween to analyse if the instruments used appropriately depict the animal or if a different choice of instruments would have been better etc?

Again, you can use the worksheets I have made available to get your tween engaged in this activity. 

 

Composer And The Era In Music

With this activity your tween can delve into a research project to learn about Camille Saint Saens, his early childhood, education, compositions, contribution to music as well as how the Romantic era in music influenced him etc. 

 

What do you think of the above ideas?

Can you do it?

Please comment below and let me know, which activity your tween enjoyed the most. 

Karen Cadera

Karen Cadera

Founder/Creator

Mom, Teacher, Minimalist, Zero Waste Enthusiast, Multi Pod.

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