Carnival of the Animals exploration

In this Theater Making/Literacy/Connections Unit, students will become very familiar with the music of Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns through active listening. At first, they will explore (through dance and drama) all of the animals in the music. Then, they will focus on one animal’s movements and habits and design and create a mask for that animal in art class. They can incorporate their mask and movement in a sharing or performance, if so desired. (This unit works best with the collaboration of the art teacher or visual art specialist. The
drama facilitator should focus on acting with the mask, characterization, movement, and music interpretation).

This Theater unit is written for the 1st Grade and is aligned with the 2nd Grade Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Theater Benchmarks. This unit was written by Mina Hartong.

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