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An international music workshop based upon a fairy tale at EPIM
Initiated by our music professor in collaboration with our French teacher, the children from the CP / CE1 classes came together at EPIM Marseille in their reputable workshop to bring to life an international fairy tale with music. EPIM Aix enjoyed the same workshop the week after.
[26/01/2011]

The workshop presented a unique
challenge for our students: to interpret
and set to music a fairy tale. They
created different musical sequences illustrating the main actions
of the story. In
this way, like a film score, songs and
sounds brought to life the history and
wonder, while promoting
the use and
application of the language of music explored in previous sessions by the children with their music teacher.
The steps and goals were many:
- Present the history and music project
- Create links with geography
-
Listen to and learn the first song
- Work on pronunciation in
a foreign language
- Listen, learn, and memorize the rhythmic sequence
- Develop the students' imagination by creating the sound
effects of the forest
- Create the find pleasure in creation
- Listen and learn the final song
The skills listed were:
- To listen and understand the project's progress
- Ability to reproduce a song
- Ability to imitate a
rhythm and play in groups
- Master the musical gestures
- Occupy the space
- Participate in a group and take a musical role in the
collective creation
- Participate in a common
understanding
The story chosen was that of "Imata, the
Little Amazonian Hunter" because it gives the opportunity to discover,
through the story of young Imata, a new universe. Two songs, one in Spanish and
one in Quechua, illustrate this story and offer beyond the pleasure of singing,
openness to language.
The story takes place in the Amazonian rainforest. The
main character, Imata who is 10 years old, learns how to hunt.
To give you an idea, the workshop went as follows:
The teacher establishes links with geography:
- The Amazon is a forest on a globe or map: this is the
largest rainforest in the world.
- Briefly discusses climate: hot and wet (lots of rain)
- Appoints the animals that live in this forest: large
variety of parrots, monkeys, iguanas, snakes, peccaries (a kind of wild boar)
The
story is then illustrated with musical sequences like a movie soundtrack:
- Lullaby sung in Spanish
- Announcement of the hunt by the drums and percussion
instruments
- Evocation of the forest with musical instruments
- Song of celebration at
the end of the story (in Quechua)
When the sequences are ready, the teacher and the students
"placed" them in history, with two performance areas having been
created:
- A space called "village" for the lullaby, announcement
of the hunt and final song
- A space called "forest" to create the 'soundscape'
of the forest
By the end of the workshop, the teachers and
students had made their own hats, jewellery and Indian bows and arrow, to the
admiration and surprise of all the parents who picked them up that evening.