Carnival of the Animals - Great Sub Plan for K and 1!

Last week, I had to stay home because my cutie patootie was sick. I always stress about sub plans. I don't want my students to have to have a lesson that does not work on real concepts and goals of the school year. I often have subs without music backgrounds, so I have to be creative about what I leave for them to do with the kids. (I don't know about you, but I never leave Orff instrument lessons!)

So... For my little ones, I left a lesson that I have done in the past. The basic idea is students listen to selections from Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens and try to figure out which animal the music describes. They draw a picture or write the animal word on a simple worksheet available at the bottom of this post. I decided to choose 8 of the more obvious or accessible animals to the students. After they have listened to all of the selections and made a guess about what they are, students share what they think each is, and compare their answer to the real answer.

Feedback from an aid working with some of the students from the special education classroom was really positive. She said the students were engaged during the whole class and most guessed a few correct animals! We followed up by listening again when I returned. They were excited to tell me which animals went with which movements of the piece.

Here is the VERY SIMPLE worksheet I created. (When baby is sick, I don't have much time to creatively format!)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6jBwrqnt9veaXh1RTRILTRlYkk/edit?usp=sharing

What lessons do you leave for substitute teachers?