Minibeasts Level: Early Grades - Listening, appraising & movement

The Flight of the Bumble Bee (tempo)

This is The Flight of the Bumble Bee by the composer, Rimsky-Korsakov. The solo violin part is played by a young musician, Likia Yukupova. It's the tale of Tsar Saltan, which you can read by downloading the pdf. Ask the children if this music has a fast tempo or a slow tempo. They will begin to understand the word, 'tempo' from the context.

The children could imagine they are bees and run around quickly into a space, not touching each other. At the end they have to disappear into the hive – when the music ends, all go to a place you have chosen to be the hive, crouch down and be silent.