Carnival of the Animals - Autumn 2

Carnival of the Animals - Autumn 2

This term, we are looking at the book by Katy Flint called "Carnival of the Animals". This book is a story based upon Camille Saint-Saëns' beautiful suite of music called Carnival of the Animals. The music explores various different animals in musical form. 

In the book, two brothers discover a magical animal kingdom behind their bookcase. They are greeted by the royal lion with his shaggy mane; ask for directions from an old lonely tortoise; take a ride on some lumbering elephants; topple a skeleton of dinosaur bones; and swim among a school of shimmering fish. If only they could take them all home...

Take a look at the 'Knowledge Organiser' below, which will give you an insight into what the children will be learning during this topic.

Week 3: The Elephant

This week has been the children's favourite animal so far. They have loved finding out facts about elephants - did you know an elephant can grow to 3m tall? The children loved hearing the story "Elmer the Patchwork Elephant" and they did some fantastic junk modelling and made elephants! 

Week 2: The Tortoise

The children have loved finding out information about tortoises this week! They found out that tortoises do not live in the water but turtles do. They learned that tortoises live for a very long time, some even over 100 years old! The children loved drawing tortoises and hearing Aesop's fable "The Hare and the Tortoise". I told them about my Daddy's tortoise who escaped after he tied him to the washing line for exercise - they thought it was very funny!

Week 1: The Lion

This week, we read the Carnival of the Animals story and focused on the first animal in the book, which is the lion. We also read the story "We're Going on a Lion Hunt" which the children really enjoyed! We found out where lions live, what they eat and what baby lions are called. The children labelled different parts of a lion and also described it.