Celebrating the festive season remotely with family
As the year ends, people of all faiths are preparing for a variety of festivals […]
Read morePeter and the Wolf
What you need
- Clear an open space in your home, you may need to rearrange some furniture so that there’s plenty of room to move around. You can also create some cosy ‘hiding places’ which will be useful when the wolf arrives.
- Find ‘David Bowie Narrates Peter And The Wolf’ on Spotify, Sonos or YouTube.
- Musical instruments or pots, pans etc.
- Optional extras: feel free to dress up as any of the characters in the narration: peter, bird, duck, grandfather, the wolf, the hunters.
Benefits
Peter and the Wolf depicts each animal with a musical instrument, each moving with its own personal theme tune. This exercise will develop your child’s listening skills, through identifying the sounds of each animal. It’s also a great physical exercise, allowing your child to explore how each animal might move, which stimulates their bright imaginations whilst keeping their bodies busy.
The experience
Start playing the narration and encourage your child to listen out for the animals. Interpret the sounds together and begin to impersonate different characters, asking your child how they think each one might move and join in with them, if you can. Use the open space to move around freely whilst the music is playing.
When the wolf is mentioned, suggest using the ‘hiding places’ or hide under a duvet/cushions together.
When the music stops or quietens, use this time to pause and ‘be quiet so the wolf doesn’t hear us’. Continue to add to the roleplay and encourage your child to label their feelings and anticipate what might happen next. e.g. ‘I’m frightened that the wolf might eat us all up!’
Keep this going, responding to events with movement and play as the narration unfolds. If you feel like making some noise, use your instruments to recreate the sounds of the characters. Demonstrate to your child how there are also soft, quieter noises, not just loud ones!