For two of my piano camps this month I decided to use Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals as the theme. It’s been fun to research the work and become more familiar with it myself!
Here are some of the resources I’ve been using in my planning:
The Carnival of the Animals – This book is in the Get to Know Classical Masterpieces Series, published by Schott and distributed by Hal Leonard. Hans-Gunter Heumann has taken each piece of this suite and arranged it for piano (I’d say early intermediate level). The book is colorfully illustrated and a story told by Loriot is woven throughout the book. This book is a treasure!
This CD includes both Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals. The narrator captures the imagination of the listener and points out the elements of each piece for which the listener should listen. He also offers brief comments and praise for the young performers employed for the recording of this performance. Highly recommended!
Lastly (for now!), I’ve spent hours putting together a coloring book that my piano camp students can color while we listen to the recording of each piece in the suite. I’m planning on using one coloring book for each piano camp group and having them work together to color the animal pictures. We’ll see how that goes! The 14-page coloring book is 11×17″ (although it will also print great on 8.5×11″ if you prefer a smaller size) and is designed so that you can put a binding on the left side to hold the pages together. It’s in a pdf file and is ready for printing. Click here or on the picture below to download a copy for your own use. Enjoy!
Thank you so much for making this coloring book! I teach elementary music and I’ve been searching for a coloring book with all the animals in it. This is wonderful!
Hello Natalie
Thanks so much for the colouring book – you certainly have put a lot of time into it. I am going to use it with my class as part of my unit on Carnival of the Animals.
Best wishes always
I love this coloring book. My students loved it also. Nice for them to color while listening to and reviewing all the great music. Now I’m off to look up that great book you wrote about!
Paz.
T.
I really appreciate you sharing this with others. I’ve been collecting the pictures from here and there . . . only to find you had already done the same thing.
Thanks so much , the picture is very good for the kids!
Hi…I have been trying to download the colouring book but link does not seem to be working. I would love to be able to use it as it sounds great. Do I need anything to be able to download it. Thanks Rachel
Hi Rachel~
You have to have the free Adobe Reader software installed on your computer in order to open, view, and print the coloring book file. You can find the software download here: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/
Pictures great using at our Rainbow and Brownie meeting tonight
Thank you very much for being so generous
and sharing this great coloring book you
created. I teach K-6 General Music and plan to teach a unit on Carnival of the Animals next fall. I really appreciate having this resource.
Thank you so much for sharing this coloring book! It’s WONDERFUL!
My sister and I are doing a Carnival of the Animals Music Camp this summer. What a LOT of work goes into doing something like this! But, we’re having fun planning it (from opposite sides of North America!)
Thanks for making this colouring book – it will be so much fun for kids of all ages!
Thank you so much for sharing your hard work. Much appreciated!
Thank you for the great coloring book!!
I know it was hard work putting it together, I’ve put ones together and thought I would see if someone else had done the work for my second graders, “Carnival of the Animals” lesson. It’s Great!!
Thanks so much, the children will love this colouring book. It’s wonderful, thanks for sharing your hard work xx
I’ve been searching for coloring sheets to go along with a ballet performance we are having at the library where I work. This is perfect. THANKS!!!