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“Peter and the Wolf” introduces orchestra instruments in this lesson
Language Arts, Music
1, 2, 3
Title – Peter and the Wolf – Instruments
By – Cathy Maddox
Primary Subject – Music
Secondary Subjects – Language Arts
Grade Level – 1-3
(This is a two/three part lesson) 45 minutes each
Materials needed: Any book of Peter and the Wolf , various instruments – drums, maraca, jingle bells, glockenspiel, claves, etc.
- 1. Read the story “
Peter and the Wolf
- 2. After reading the story, talk about the characters and then assign classroom instruments to each character. Re-read the story and have students play their instruments at the appropriate times.
Lesson two: Peter and the Wolf
Materials needed: a CD with the music to Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev (I went online and found the music), pictures of each instrument-flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horns, violin, and drum. I also use costumes.
- 1. Explain that just as we the class put our classroom instruments to the story last class time, there is a man by the name Sergei Prokofiev who did the same thing. He used instruments from the orchestra.
- 2. Show the picture of each ‘character’ and play an example of each instrument. The copy of music that I downloaded has this section.
- 3. Assign students to each character (it’s ok if there are 4 birds and 2 cats… you get the picture)
- 4. Explain that the ‘characters’ will act out the story when they hear their instrument played. To make this easier for the little guys, I hold up the picture that represents their character.
It’s a lot of fun watching them pretend to be a cat, bird, wolf, duck, hunters, grandfather, or Peter.
You can do lots of things with this exercise. But it is a good way to introduce orchestra instruments to the students. Even the little guys enjoy this and understand.
E-Mail Cathy Maddox !