The Educational MISSION of the WVSO is to provide opportunities for all learners to grow as individuals and to develop curiosity and creativity through a personal relationship with orchestral music.
symphonic safari lesson plans
A Lesson of Firsts by Dylan Pritchett - Lesson written for first grade, but good for first music experiences of any grade. Excellent follow-up activities and resources for elementary grades.
Animals – Rockin’ English - Listen and watch while the singer reads and displays the lyrics and hand-drawn animations for a bird, dog, cow, and elephant. Great to extend the song and add sounds produced by home-made instruments.
Aquarium and the Magic Fish by Julie Johnson - A great plan for elementary in comparing visual art and music using Saint-Saen’s “Aquarium” from Carnival of the Animals. Humanities lesson for introduction, with students finding their own connections between art and music as they extend the lesson.
Music, Caterpillars: How They Grow! - Simple lesson to introduce with great application for older elementary grades. Students create their own rhymes to describe stages of animal growth and life cycle. Combines science, music, language arts and visual art.
A Russian Fairy Tale: Peter and the Wolf - You will need to access the sound samples from the WVSO audio Cd or instantencore.com. Power Point will cover instruments with explanation and connection to the appropriate animal.
The Lion King -A Broadway Musical Guide - For grades 6-12, a 40-page guide of activities and exploration of the Broadway play.
Listening to Music: Carnival of the Animals - Originally formatted for ages 10-13. Listening, discussing and discerning instruments portraying specific animals.
Can Math explain how Animals get their patterns?
Language arts quiz of animal idioms - How could these idioms be expressed as music? What instruments would you use? How can you use music elements to create composition that makes the idiom come to life—both literally and figuratively?
Singing for the Animals - Ideas for a service project for raising funds for animal causes.
First Come the Zebra - A book about conflict resolution.
People and Whales - For 4-6th grades.
Animal Actions - Using Saint-Saen’s Carnival of the Animals, lessons focusing on movement as exploration of animals as well as writing descriptive phrases to describe animals.
