Learning project · Primary school
A musical tale by Sergei Prokofiev, where every character is an instrument.
Free materials for the classroom, and a live performance at school by the Sinfonietta Ensemble.
Open the materials · Italiano The show at school
The story
Peter opens the garden gate and goes out into the meadow, where a bird, a duck and a cat are waiting, and a wolf is about to come out of the forest. Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf in 1936 for the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow, at the request of its director Natalia Sats, to introduce children to the orchestra.
Each character has its own instrument and its own theme, so by following the story children learn to recognise the sounds:
The bird
flute
The duck
oboe
The cat
clarinet
Grandfather
bassoon
The wolf
three horns
Peter
strings
The hunters' shots
timpani and bass drum
What children learn
- To recognise the instruments and the four families: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.
- To listen to a long piece attentively, noticing when each character comes in.
- To tell high from low, fast from slow, and the timbre of each instrument.
- To name the things of music, and discover where the words come from.
- To retell what they hear with words, drawings and movement.
The materials
Presentation for the class
18 slides to show on the whiteboard: the story, the characters and their themes to listen to.
Character cards
Seven A4 cards, one for each character and its instrument, with activities for the children. Ready to print.
Illustrated glossary
24 word cards with pictures, examples and word roots, plus a map and games. No word left misunderstood.
Everything is in one free web app: no registration, installable on interactive whiteboards, computers and tablets, and once opened it works offline.
| Language | Materials |
|---|---|
| Italiano | Open the web app |
| English | Coming soon |
The show at school
The Sinfonietta Ensemble brings Peter and the Wolf to your school: no theatre, no coach trips. The children meet live the characters and instruments they discovered in class. We agree on the day, the space and the classes together.
Schools in Italy can use the request form in the web app. Anyone else can write to
For teachers
A possible lesson, in one hour. Each step can also become a meeting of its own, and the glossary can come back all year round.
| Minutes | Activity |
|---|---|
| 0–10 | Introducing the tale: who are the characters? |
| 10–25 | Listening to the themes, and the game «Who's coming?» |
| 25–40 | In pairs, a character card |
| 40–50 | A glossary card: meanings, sentences, word roots |
| 50–60 | «Move like…»: each group acts out its character on its music |
Beyond music, the project reaches into language (storytelling, vocabulary, where words come from), art (drawing characters and instruments) and physical education (moving like the characters, marching in time with the hunters).
