Lesson 7 The Aquarium by Camille Saint-Saens Part 1

Now that we know how to listen to tell if music is moving upward and/or downward we will have some fun with swimming fish in an Aquarium!

Here is the link to the YouTube of the Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens.  This piece moves slowly and gives you a wonderful opportunity to be able to listen for the upward and downward movement of the notes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsD0FDLOKGA

The pictures below will  help the children to follow along.  Print them out and then show them how to touch each fish as the music plays.  As they do so they will begin to hear and feel the movement of the melody.  You will also visually see the long and short notes and the repeated phrases of the music.  You can reinforce the long and short notes by having the children count how many there are of each kind.  Ask if they see the patterns in the music.  What do they think the bubbles represent?

Have fun playing with the fish and the music and then look at Part 2 for a really fun follow-up activity.

 Here is the answer sheet that shows the correct order of the "fish pages".

Lesson 8 the Aquarium by Camille Saint-Saens Part 2

Now that you know the music, you can have some fun with it.  Music and movement just go together.  Music makes you want to move.  But the trick with this activity is to move upward and downward along with the music.  It will help the children to begin to listen critically to the music.

We went to the hardware store and got a bunch of sticks they give you to stir your paint.  You could use craft sticks but the bigger the better.  The larger sticks are easier to hold and they do not break.

Then we glued a fish to each of the sticks until we had a whole school of fish.  The children scattered around the room with their fish and when the music began they could walk around while the fish moved up and down with the music.  Initially you may find that it helps if you are quietly singing the music as it plays "Down, Up, Down, Up, Down and hold. . ." etc through-out the music.  It is one thing to do the ups and downs with visuals.  It is much more difficult to hear them.

To make the activity even more fun we decided not to do the downward music "of the bubbles" but instead we told the children that for today the bubble music would represent "dinner time" for the fish.  We put a chair in the center of the room and had a child stand on the chair with a jar of bubbles.  He would blow the bubbles into the air and the fish would all come and "eat" them.  With a large class it was necessary to have 3-4 people feeding the fish.

Here are some fish you could print out for this activity or the kids can draw their own.  These are the same fish used in Part 1 so the kids will associate these fish with this piece of music.

Now just have fun and do the "Fish Dance"!