We were asked to do a short musical presentation for the 2nd graders at our kids’ school for a unit on self-expression.

It was one of those opportunities where we could either throw something together with music we already knew, OR go all the way and make it a whole thing.

Clearly, I went for the latter choice!

Some time ago, we were gifted a beautiful storybook of the story of Peter and the Wolf. Ever since I rediscovered it on the bookshelf a few months ago, I thought it would really cool to do a musical project with the book.

My initial idea was to read the book and weave in Prokofiev‘s music, but we were only given 15 minutes per class, and that ended up being too long.

To streamline the story, I cut a few parts, and focused on the animals. I decided not to use the book, since I know my 2nd grader would be somewhat confused if I showed the book but didn’t read all the words or address some of the pictures.

To go along with the theme of expression, I chose excerpts from the music that elevated the emotional drama of the story.

Packaging orchestral music in a form that kids are comfortable with (story time) worked really well- I plan to expand on this format in the future. There are so many classic stories that have already been set to great music… so many possibilities!