Creative Movement

In third grade we have been listening to Camille Saint Seans, Carnival of the Animals. Each character in the carnival is represented by different instruments in the orchestra that are made to sound like the character. Students have been having fun learning about how the instrumentalists were able to make an instrument sound like a bird, dinosaur bones, elephants, lions and hens and roosters.

As part of this experiment, the children were given a movement assignment. They were to create movements that went along with their given character. They had to include locomotor and non-locomotor patterns as well as body percussion and improvisation. Initially I was worried about their abilities to create something but with the use of cooperative learning structures and some teacher guidance and monitoring, they came up with some really great movements.

Below you will see pictures of some of the groups and their process.