Rachel Ollestad

Spring 2018
Carnival of the Animals Unit Timeline

Week 1 (Feb. 5-8): Students will take the pretest. The introduction of Carnival of the
Animals will include a brief history of the work (why composer wrote the piece) and an
introduction of Camille Saint-Saëns as the composer (including a discussion on what a
composer is). The students will listen to March of the Lions and try to guess which animal
the song is about. Students will also identify the instruments that they heard and explain
how the instruments create the animal sounds. Then, the students will act out scene the
royal introduction of the lions with half of the students being lions and the other half acting
as animals lined up to observe the entrance of the lions.

Week 2 (Feb. 12-15): Students will briefly review Lions. Then, they will listen to the
“Roosters and Hens” movement, guess the animal, and describe the instruments they hear.
There will be a brief discussion on whether the students hear short or long notes and how
the duration of notes relates to the animal of the week. They will then play the game
“Chicken on a Fencepost.”

Week 3 (Feb. 19-22): Students will briefly review Roosters and Hens. They will then listen
to the “Elephant” movement, guess the animal, and describe the instruments they hear.
There will be a brief discussion on whether the movement sounds slow or fast and heavy or
light. Then the students will learn the song “One Little Elephant” to sing and play on Orff
instruments while others play the game.

Week 4 (Feb. 27-Mar.1): Students will briefly review Elephants. They will then listen to
“Personages with Long Ears,” guess the animal, discuss instruments they hear, and briefly
discuss high sounds vs. low sounds. They will then listen to and learn the song Tingalayo to
play on Orff instruments.

Week 5 (Mar. 5-8): Students will briefly review Personages with Long Ears. They will then
listen to “Aquarium,” guess the animal, discuss instruments they hear, and work on making
predictions about what they think happens to the fish during the piece. Then, students will
play the Aquarium game.

Week 6 (Mar. 12-15): Students will briefly review Aquarium. They will then listen to
“Aviary,” guess the animal, discuss instruments they hear, and briefly discuss whether the
instruments sound light or heavy and fast or slow. They will learn the poem “Little Robin
Redbreast” and work on reading and playing rhythms with traditional notation.

Week 7 (Mar. 19-22): Students will take post-test and then review all of the animals they
learned during the unit. While listening to a narrated book with poems describing each
animal, they will decorate a head band with one animal discussed, which they can take
home to wear. Following the narration, the students will get into groups of like-animals and
listen for their movement, modeling the appropriate motions they learned for that animal.
Finally, with any remaining time, students will revisit one of the previously taught games.