6 ‘Unbelievably Fun’ Ways To Introduce Pre-Schoolers To The Carnival Of The Animals

Have you heard of the Carnival of the Animals? 

Do you like it? 

Have you introduced it to your kids?

I’m sure there’s not a single homeschooling parent who hasn’t heard of the Carnival of the Animals, or hasn’t had their pre-schooler listen to the Carnival of the Animals. 

While many homeschool moms do introduce the Carnival of the Animals to their young kids, unfortunately I’ve found that not many of them know how to engage their kids with activities designed around it. 

Thus they lose out on this amazing opportunity to introduce their kids to music appreciation in a serious manner. 

So in this post I will be covering how you as a homeschool parent can do exactly this with your pre-schoolers. 

Also I have included an adorable printable with four worksheets covering the first movement in the Carnival of the Animals, which you can use with your pre-schoolers. 

So don’t forget to download it once you are done reading through this post. 

Create A Playlist And Listen

This is the first and easiest thing to do. 

Create a playlist consisting of all the movements and play it continuously in the background in your homeschool. 

This way kids will automatically become accustomed to the different movements.

Learn Composer Facts

Find some key facts about Camille Saint Saens like his country of birth (France), the era of music he belonged to (the romantic era), his other compositions and introduce him to your kids in the form of a story. 

Don’t know how to create a composer study unit for pre-schoolers? 

No worries. 

Read my post 6 ’Shockingly Fun’ Composer Studies Activities For Pre-Schoolers.

Learning About the Instruments

Different instruments are used in different movements. 

So this would be a really good time for you to introduce your kids several different instruments of the orchestra. 

Don’t know where to start?

No worries. Just read through my post 5 ‘Ridiculously Simple’ Instrument Study Activities For Your Preschoolers. 

Discuss The Movement, The Instruments And The Animals Featured

Each movement represents a different animal and you can just ask your pre-schooler what his favourite movement is, and also inform him of which movement represents, which animals. 

You can take the discussion further and ask him how each movement makes him feel and what he thinks of the instrument sounds he hears. 

Eg. Do they make him feel scared/happy/sad etc?

Make A Craft

You can help your child make a craft of the animal depicted in his favourite movement. 

Well you can actually take this further and do a different craft on different days by listening to different movements on each day. 

Field Trip

How about a field trip to the local instrument store? 

Your pre-schooler can actually touch and feel some of the instruments he heard in his favourite movement and maybe if one of the staff knows how to play, he might even see a live performance. 

Can you think of anything more fun?

Which one of the above activities will you try out first?

Please comment below, I would love to know. 

Don’t forget to download the adorable printables I created to go with this post.