Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King Story and Listening

I don't know if this qualifies as a SongWorks lesson but it's from one of Peggy Bennett's books, specifically Playing with the Classics. Wonderful resource for using classical music in the classroom with engaging lessons covering from story making, to moving and score reading. I have used Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King many times in my music class but had not used the ideas in the book before. I introduced Grieg to the children and we talked a bit about him and some things about his life. Did you know that Grieg did not like school and would find ways to get his close wet on the way to school so he would be sent home for dry clothes? Well by the time he went home and came back, school would be over. Tricky boy, eh?

I then began to share the story with the children although I did adapt it a bit and kept it closer to the Peer Gynt story including the trolls! I found that they were familiar with the story the 3 Billy Goats Gruff and knew what a troll was- grumpy! I asked them questions as we went along, what did the princess look like? Why was she riding a pig? What was the pig's name? and so on. I had created a smart notebook file for Grieg and revealed pictures of the story as we went along. They loved the story and I probably could have gone on for 1001 and nights! (Sorry that was a bit cliché)

After the story we listened to the music and imagined Peer, the princess and the trolls. Again, they loved the music and talked about how the music sounded just like Peer being chased by the trolls out of the mountain. Of course they all wanted to listen to it again and again!