Candy Cane Ponies and Musical Form

This week students in the younger grades listened to a "March" from the Nutcracker ballet.  After deciphering the form we discovered that there was a repeating A section.  That means "March" is in rondo form.  Then we added maracas and jingles to indicate galloping and marching sounds in the music.  It wasn't enough to just play the different parts, so we pulled out our Candy Cane Ponies and marched and galloped to show the form of the song!  During the B and C sections we took short breaks to feed our ponies carrots from our pockets and to give them drinks of water.  What a hoot!

You can download the recording we used from Tchaikovsky's ballet here.  Teachers:  This activity is from Parachutes and Ribbons and Scarves, Oh My! by the talented Artie Almeida.