This week, some of the children have been developing their knowledge of the composer Camille Saint-Saens who composed Carnival of the Animals. Working in a small group, they discovered that the piece of music is made up of 14 different parts, which we call movements, and that most of the movements represented different animals. Listening to some of the movements, such as 'Aquarium' and 'The Swan', the children thought about how the music made them feel and used pens, pencils and pastels to draw and describe this. This was a good opportunity to consider pitch, dynamics and tempo too. 

The children began to think about how they could compose a movement for Carnival of the Animals. After selecting an animal to compose for, they considered which percussion instrument could be used to bring this to life. Some of the children shared "We selected a triangle and a xylophone because they reminded us of a butterfly," and "We selected drums  because it reminded us of an elephant." After developing ostinatos and a graphic score, the children performed their final movements. Their performance was fantastic and one that Camille Saint-Saens himself would be proud of!