Students can use paper and crayons/markers, or if they're 1:1 their devices, to draw what they hear.  I never tell my students what they're going to listen to for this first exercise.  The only instructions are to "draw the picture the music paints for you" and "keep your eyes on your own paper so I see YOUR ideas and not your neighbor's on your page."

I would play it many times, as it's a short piece, to give students a chance to fully develop their ideas.  Either before they begin drawing, or shortly before the last listen, prepare students that you will be asking them to share what they drew and you'll be asking them what in the music told them to draw it.  The most important thing is that there are no wrong answers.  If they don't come up with it on their own, you may want to guide them: Did you hear high sounds or low sounds?  Was the music fast, slow or medium?  Did you her long notes or short notes?

Before the end of the lesson, you will label the piece, but there are still no wrong answers, that is just what the composer envisioned.  It's okay if students heard different pictures.

Depending on the length of your classes, you may have time for the next section, "Meet the Composer."  If not, you can save it for the next lesson.

Below is the file for "Aviary," which is also on the student side for use with headphones if students have their own device.

Draw What You Hear

You will need to use your judgment and knowledge of your own students when it comes to the updates.  The text questions and writing a response may be too advanced for younger students still developing their reading and writing skills.

Possible Alternatives:

• Give students a half sheet of paper or index card, and a pencil.  On one side, draw the animal they think would represent them and on the other, draw the animal they feel best represents a classmate. (you might want to assign who their "buddy" is to make sure everyone has a second animal drawn for them)  Then have a class discussion on what they decided.
• For drawing, they can use Google Drawings, PicMonkey or Kid Doodle. For the lessons that have guided questions throughout, you can include a Google form or link to the answers for the students to track their progress.
• Have students record a short video describing their animal and the animal for a classmate
• Use a dictation program or speech to text so students can speak their ideas, which would then be translated as text into the computer/device.
• You can also try Kidblog or a Google Doc for students to share information and collaborate.

INTRO AND ROYAL MARCH OF THE LION

We start with the Introduction and Lion.  There are some questions on the student side to ask before listening to The Lion.  You can choose to have students check out the zoo live webcam and Africam links either at the start of the lesson, or at the end with whatever time is left.  *Note: Africam has a lot of content to load so it will likely run much slower.

After the first listen of Royal March of the Lion, tell them we're (yes, you too!) are going to move to the music the second time.  Depending on your class, this can be in one place, or you can allow them to move around the room as they march.  You can have them slow march proudly, then on the crescendo/decrescendo do silent roars starting low, following the music up and down, ending with crown on head for the rhythm “e+ 2+ 3  4” (You can use the words “and I wear my big crown” to mimic the rhythm and help demonstrate)

Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

HENS AND ROOSTERS

After answering the questions, have students demonstrate for you first what hens and roosters look like when they move. (no sound)  Have them listen to the piece once without moving.  Then play the piece again and have them move to the music.

Hens and Roosters

PEOPLE WITH LONG EARS (Mules)

A mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse.  For more information and/or a history tie-in, you can check out information in this Wikipedia article.

After students answer the questions on their side, have them listen once to People with Long Ears. After the first listen, ask if they heard the "hee-haw" sound that the violin makes.  

• Question:  Did the violin’s notes go higher, or lower?  Answer:  Higher
• Question:  What happened to the tempo?  (if they need help “T-E-M-P-O, tempo means fast and slow)  Answer:  It got faster.

Have them listen a second time, and ask that they make mule ears with their hands whenever they hear the "hee-haw" from the violin.

People with Long Ears

TORTOISES

Music terms:  

• Tempo (the speed of the music), Presto (fast), Largo (slow)
• Dynamics (the louds and quiets in music), Piano (quiet), Forte (loud)

Just listen the first time.  Then ask if the tempo of the music is "presto" (fast) or "largo" (slow) and if the dynamics of the music are "piano" (quiet) or "forte" (loud).

For the second time, have them move slowly like tortoises to the music.  (they may be on all fours, respectful and mindful of each other and the room)

Tortoises

ELEPHANT

We'll do movement and a listening map with this one.  After answering the questions, listen the first time.  The second time, have them stand up.  Ask them to make an elephant trunk (they can do it however they wish) and move like the music tells them an elephant moves.

Elephant

The listening map is a video.  This is a great opportunity to talk about form.  It starts with a piano introdution.  Then comes the A section, B section, A' (A prime) because it's like the A section, but now the string bass is accompanied by the piano.)

There are live cams to watch for elephants.  You can have them check it out when it works best for you and your time.

KANGAROOS

After students answer their questions, have them demonstrate how a kangaroo moves.  (This is great to burn a little energy before listening to the piece.)

The first time, just listen to the piece.

The second time, display the listening map on the projector and/or have students work together on their own devices  Have students point in the air (or on their own maps) as you point at the screen to follow the music a second time.  You'll need to point out the Repeat Sign at the end of the first line.  This tells us to do the first line again.

Kangaroos

Kangaroo - Listening Map

The third time, have them hop to match the music.  Point out that there isn't always "hopping" music.  They will need to decide what is happening during that time and come up with a different movement.

If you would like to do an extension to talk about kangaroos, namely that they are marsupials (and what that means) and that they use their tails for balance, you can refer to the article on Wikipedia.

AQUARIUM

The first time, listen and follow the listening map video.  Ask students to answer the questions on their side.  (Is the music short and presto (fast) or long and largo (slow)?)  Answer: Long and Largo

The second time, have students put their hands together to make a fish.  Have their fish follow the highs and lows and louds and quiets in the music, using the listening map to help guide them.

The third time, have students swim their fish around the classroom "aquarium," still following the high and low and loud and quiet sounds in the music.

If you have movement scarves or something similar, this is a great piece to have students follow the high and low notes in the music with them.

CUCKOO IN THE DEEP WOODS

This would be a lovely time to talk about onomatopoeia, since that's exactly what a cuckoo bird's name is!  

If you'd like to learn a bit about the history of the cuckoo clock, you can check out this Wikipedia article.

Have students just listen to the piece the first time and ask them to count how many times they hear the "cuckoo" sound.  (21 times)  Then have them imitate the sound they heard in the piece to represent the cuckoo bird.  The cuckoo sound is played by a clarinet, which is part of the woodwind family.  Help them discover that the cuckoo bird's call is a high sound followed by a low sound.  As they imitate it, have them show the high and low with their hands.

The second time, use the listening map to help guide students.  Watch out for the repeat sign in the first line.  This means we do the first line again before moving on.  Each dot is a chord and each cuckoo bird is when the clarinet plays the "cuckoo" sound.

Cuckoo in the Deep Woods

Cuckoo Listening Map

AVIARY

Have students respond to the questions before listening.  Try to get them to make the connection between aviary, aviation and flying.

Listen the first time.  Ask if their expectations about the piece matched what they heard.  They may recognize it from the drawing activity at the beginning of this unit.

Based on the music they heard (primarily a flute), ask them what size birds are flying.  The second time listening, they can move around the room like birds to match the music.

Aviary

THE PIANISTS  (be very deliberate in your pronunciation!)

Have them listen the first time.  What does it sound like the pianists are doing?  (practicing)

The second time, while listening, silently play “Air Piano.”  Remember Left Long Low, Right Little High.  Have them show you which direction they’ll play when the notes go higher.  And if the pitches go Lower?  What if they only go a little higher?  A little lower?  Little back and forths?

You can use the video, or the audio below.  The video plays it a bit too fast for my liking and it could be difficult for the kids to follow, but I like the kids to be able to see it played.

The Pianists

FOSSILS

If you wish, you can show this five minute video on fossils:

Have students look at the listening map and share what they think they might hear, based on what they see.  Things to make sure are covered are a xylophone, piano and the form of the music which is A, B, A, C and then a Coda (the special tail to end a piece of music).

Fossils Listening Map

As a heads up before listening, students will hear a familiar tune during the B section.  They might recognize the piece as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Baa Baa Black Sheep" or "The Alphabet Song."  They all have the same melody, which is an old French folk melody.  (Mozart wrote a whole piece with this melody called "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je Maman")

Help students follow the listening map as they listen.

Fossils

For the second listen, use the video so students can hear and see the instruments being played.  You can use the listening map to help you call out which instrument is coming next.

THE SWAN

You (and the students) can learn a little about ballet:

What is Ballet?

The dancer in the video is on pointe shoes.  Here is some info on pointe shoes too:

The Point of Pointe Shoes

For the second listen, students can watch world famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform The Swan.  I love when I have the opportunity to show students an instrument being played, especially ones that might be more unfamiliar to them.

If you want to do a third listen, or if students need to get up and move, have them stand, using big, smooth swan wings when the cello is forte (loud,) and small baby swan wings when it is piano. (quiet)  If it’s in the middle, show medium sized swan wings.

THE FINALE

Discuss with students what a "finale" is and go through the discussion questions.  Then have the first listen and compare their predictions to what they heard.  The Finale starts similarly to the Introduction so it will sound a little familiar.

Finale

Ask them to remember their drawings from the very beginning.  If they were to draw a picture this time, what would it look like?  Share some ideas.

After some discussion, tell them the animators at Disney also drew pictures of what they saw when they heard the Finale to Carnival of the Animals.

*This last update is preparing the students to begin composing their own piece of music to be part of the class Carnival of the Animals.  Remind students to write their name on the back of their picture and make sure it's about the size of a piece of paper so it can be seen when you make the videos.

The survey is almost the exact same questions as the last update, but students will be focusing their ideas after feedback from peers.  They are also asked for possible instrument ideas so you can see what they are thinking to help guide them towards a final decision.

I would encourage you to steer students away from Lion, as it is part of the final compilation, and try to avoid duplicate animals if at all possible.  It's not the end of the world if two students are set on doing the same animal, but it's nice to have a variety.

For this section, I will provide ideas and tips, but will leave it to you to execute how you feel it will work best in your classroom with your materials and your students.

The end goal is to have a collection of short videos to compile into a class Carnival of the Animals.

Students compose their piece.
Students record the audio for their piece.
Students are videotaped with the picture of their animal, the audio is played back and they move like their animal for the duration of their piece.

Videos can then be compiled into one class video.

In the past, I have recorded the audio and the video myself.  I have also set up little "recording studios" in my room and partnered students up to record each other.  I posted directions in that area to help students.  Students also get a big kick out of it being called a "recording studio."  They feel like rockstars.

For the compositions, you can have students use classroom instruments, found sounds or a music program like Garage Band.  If you're new to Garage Band, it's very user friendly and there are plenty of articles online and tutorials on YouTube like this one:

At this point your role is as a guide to help students realize their composition.  They can use pitched (can play different pitches, like a xylophone) or unpitched instruments (only plays one sound, like a tambourine).  Some questions you might ask:

• Does this instrument make sounds that match what you decided for your animal?  (High sounds/Low sounds, Long sounds/Short sounds, etc)
• Does your tempo match the movement of your animal?

When kids use GarageBand, they have a tendancy to want to use ALL THE SOUNDS!  If they're using a software program for their composition, encourage them to make sure the main idea can clearly be heard.

THE FINAL PRODUCT

Here are some ideas for the final product:

• Compile all student videos into one video project that fade in and out between each other
• Use the original Introduction and Royal March of the Lion as the intro.  You can use the same motions for Lion as descibed in the original lesson.  You can plan/choreograph something for the Introduction, or have students moving in place like their animal as a preview to the carnival to come.  Then students do the Lion motions as soon as it starts.
• Use the original Finale as the ending.  My suggestion is to have students parade across the camera as their animal.  Since they will already be in a semi-line, you can then decide on a signal in the music for them to grab hands in a line and take a bow for the ending.

I recognize that this has to potential to be a time-consuming task outside the classroom time, but I believe the payoff is worth it.  Students will love watching themselves and be so proud of themselves, and it's a great thing to show the stakeholders. (parents, administration, etc) Perhaps you have an older student who would enjoy the video editing, and/or needs service hours.  Get creative!

ASSESSMENT

Because of the age of the students, I don't like to use a rubric that is too harsh.  Below is a suggested rubric that assesses students mastery of the skills outlined as goals at the beginning of this module.  This rubric can also be used for self-assessments and peer assessments.