Using a Story to Involve Students in Music

This is an activity to, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Grieg. It’s a way to introduce the children to classical music, or at least to involve them in it. It gets them moving. At first, you’re sitting on your spot, and you’re just moving with your hands. After you do that a few times then you can actually have the kids act out. You can make up your own stories. It’s a, good for active listening. They have to really pay attention to what’s going on, and it’s a way for them to feel the music, and to kind of respond to the music. The cat is looking around the house for the mouse because he’s hungry, but he can’t seem to find that mouse. He’s walking around upstairs looking in the rooms, and he looks in the hallway upstairs no mouse. Looks in the master bedroom upstairs, no mouse. Looks in the baby’s bedroom and thankfully there’s no mouse. Looks in the attic, not even a mouse in the in the attic. Looks in the bathroom upstairs no mouse. He decides to go down the stairs, no mouse on the stairs. Looks around in the living room, no mouse. Looks around in the den downstairs, no mouse. In the office, no mouse. Then he decides to look in the kitchen, and what does he see? The mouse is walking around. He’s hungry too. He’s picking up bread crumbs and he eats those num, num, num, num. He picks up some cheese crumbs and he says num, num, num, num. Finds some pizza crumbs num, num, num, num. Oh some spinach num, num, num, num. He finds some crackers num, num, num, num. He finds some spilled milk num, num, num, num. He finds some spaghetti and says num, num, num, but suddenly he sniffs. And he thinks, somebody’s watching me. He looks over at the door and who does he see? The cat coming into the door. When the cat sees the mouse, he starts running. The cat gets close and he swipes and swipes. When the mouse is running he jumps and runs this way, jumps, and runs this way. And now the cat is running as fast as he can, trying to catch that mouse. The mouse is running as fast as he can to get away. And the cat gets close and jumps and the mouse this way. And the cat jumps and jumps and the mouse runs that way. The cat jumps and jumps and jumps and jumps and jumps and jumps. The mouse is running for his whole, the cat makes one jump and… Then the students have to decide if the cat caught the mouse or if the mouse got away.