Animal Action

GRADES K-1 ELA AND MUSIC

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Discuss and review words that come to mind when describing a lion/elephant. Chart these words according to their parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.).

Tell the students that they will be listening to the Lion/Elephant selections of “The Carnival of the Animals”. Then, play the lion/elephant music selection.

Lesson Process:

Step 1:  Through discussion (What do the animals/their surroundings look like? What are they doing? Are they moving? How are they moving?), chart any additional descriptive words that the music brings to mind.

Step 2: Ask students to pantomime the lion/elephant when the music plays again. Add more descriptive words to the chart.

Step 3:  In groups, have the children come up with several sentences using descriptive language about one of the animals. They can then illustrate their writing.

Step 4:  Provide time to share finished products. Ask students to act out the sentences in a tableau. Other students can guess the sentences after seeing each tableau.

Step 5:  As a class, discuss and praise the children’s use of descriptive language in their writing.

Time Required:
30-45 minutes

Materials List:

  • “Carnival of the Animals” CD
  • Chart Paper
  • Markers, Crayons
  • Drawing/Writing Paper
  • Pencils

Assessment:

Students are able to generate a list of descriptive words before and after acting/moving like a lion or an elephant.

Students can use/identify the descriptive words in their writing.