Learning Objectives

• Experience the story of Old MacDonald’s Symphony told through puppetry and music played by a string quartet.
• Identify the instruments of a string quartet and learn how the music represents the animals and is integral to the story.
• Discover how puppets can be created from household objects and be manipulated to act in ways the storyteller imagines.

Education Standards Alignment

National Core Arts Standards

• Music—Creating (MU: CR1): Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
• Music—Responding (MU: Re7): Perceive and analyze artistic work.
• Music—Connecting (MU:Cn10): Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Common Core Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.2 (Speaking and Listening Grade K #2): Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.6 (LANGUAGE Grade K #6): Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

CASEL Competencies (Social and Emotional Learning)

• Responsible Decision-Making: The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. This includes the capacities to consider ethical standards and safety concerns, and to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being.
  • Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts
• Social Awareness: The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
  • Recognizing strength in others
• Self-Awareness: The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one’s strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.
  • Identifying one’s emotions

Photo: Old MacDonald (Scottie Rowell) checks on the horses on the farm. The horse puppets are made from recycled materials.

What to Expect

Performance

• This performance features a storyteller who operates puppets and musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) who make up a string quartet (or group of four).
• The different instruments that make up the string quartet are two violins, a viola, and a cello.
• This performance is approximately 40 minutes long.
• Viewers will see audience members experiencing and reacting to the live performance. The main seating area for this show is on rugs on the floor in front of the performance area. There are chairs along the sides of Studio K. There are no assigned seats, so the audience chooses to sit on the floor or in the chairs.
• Old MacDonald’s Symphony is designed as a sensory-friendly show, which means the audience could come and go anytime they needed to, and the show wouldn’t be really loud. You can learn more about sensory-friendly performances on our webpage.

Performers

• The storyteller leads the story and helps bring the puppets to life. Scottie Rowell plays Old MacDonald.
• Jing Qiao and Marina Aikawa play the violin, Jennifer Mondie plays the viola, and Loewi Lin plays the cello.
• Sometimes, the musicians play on their own; and sometimes, the musicians play together.

Sound

• Live music is played throughout the show.
• Sometimes, the music is fast and exuberant; other times, the music is slow and calm.

Visuals

• There are a few set pieces, including a stage for the musicians, fences, a barn, and raised gardening beds.
• There are several puppets used in the show made with a variety of materials. The puppets are farm animals and include chickens, pigs, horses, and a cow.

Lighting

• There is both general stage lighting and audience lighting throughout the performance.
• Lights in the seating area will remain on at a low level throughout the performance.
• During one moment in the show, the lighting becomes darker and includes moving patterns over the stage to represent a storm passing over the farm.

Audience Interaction

• The audience is just as important as the storyteller on stage. From time to time, you may be asked to participate in Old MacDonald’s adventure by trying out different animal noises, playing like chickens, or dancing along to the music. You may participate if you’d like to.
• Educators, you may want to pause the video at times during the performance to allow for audience participation in the interactive portions.

What You’ll Need

• Please have any tools on hand that will help make the viewing experience comfortable for you! Depending on whether you’re watching on a shared screen (like a TV or projector screen) or on a computer, in a bright room or a dark room, you might want headphones (to enhance or reduce sound); sunglasses, visors, or other eyewear; fidgets; or communication devices.

Resources

• Visit the “Explore the REACH” webpage to learn more about this part of the Kennedy Center campus, which includes Studio K (where the performance happened).

Musical Works You Will Hear

Here’s the music that will be performed in the show:

1. “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” Traditional
2. “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” Rodgers and Hammerstein
3. “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks” (Movement 5) from Pictures at an Exhibition, Modest Mussorgsky
4. “GoPak,” Modest Mussorgsky
5. “Strum” for String Quartet, Jessie Montgomery
6. Minuet in E Major, Op. 11 No.5, G. 275, Luigi Boccherini
7. “Hoedown” from Rodeo, Aaron Copland

Lyrics for the Sing Along

Towards the end of the performance, Old MacDonald will ask the audience to sing along to “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.” You can participate if you would like to! Click to read the lyrics to this version of the song on the webpage. You can also access a printable version of the lyrics.

“Old MacDonald Had A Farm” Song Lyrics“Old MacDonald Had A Farm” Song Lyrics

Get Printable Version

Photo: NSO musicians perform as a string quartet: Jing Qiao, Marina Aikawa, Loewi Lin, and Jennifer Mondie.

Look and Listen for

Before you watch the performance, check out this list of important moments and ideas:

• The music in Old MacDonald’s Symphony is played by a quartet of musicians: Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, and Cello. These instruments are members of the string family. They can make lots of different sounds, including the plucking “pecking” sound during Mussorgsky’s “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks.” What other sounds do you notice the animals and music make?
• Notice the sizes of the string instruments and their sounds. Which is the smallest? The biggest? Do you notice a difference in how they sound? You can preview the instruments and what they sound like using our Instrument Spotter’s Guide.
• Scottie Rowell, owner of Teller Productions, made the set and puppets of Old MacDonald’s Symphony using lots of cardboard and found materials. What materials other than cardboard did you notice in the show? How were they being used?

Think About

After you’ve experienced the performance, consider these questions:

• The costumes in Old MacDonald’s Symphony are made using old quilts and other fabrics. Quilts have been part of American history for a long time. People made quilts not just to stay warm, but also to tell stories about their families and communities. In the past, friends would gather to make quilts together, sharing memories and creating special designs that could be passed down for generations. Is there an important object in your family that came from your relatives and will continue to be shared?
• Stories can be told and shared in many ways. In Old MacDonald’s Symphony, the live music, the puppets, and the narration are all parts of the storytelling. First, think about the music.
  • How does it help create the setting (the time and place in which the story occurs)?
  • How does it introduce the characters?
  • How does it show the action or events?
  • Now, what if there was no music? Think about how this might change the story. Would you be able to understand what is happening? Would it make you feel different?
  • Why do you think the creators of this performance chose to include music?
If you have time, think more about other parts of the storytelling—the puppets and the narration. Ask the same questions as the ones for music. Finally, what elements do you like to use when telling a story?

Feel the Dynamics! with Zeynep Alpan   

Dynamics—whether a sound is loud or soft—are oftentimes used by musicians to communicate feelings within music. Join violinist and music teaching artist Zeynep Alpan as she explores dynamics, turning your household objects into musical instruments!

Fun fact! Zeynep graduated from the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program as a high school musician, where she studied with musicians from the National Symphony and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestras.

The World of Puppets   

Puppetry is a method of art that encourages expression in various ways. It can be used to share real emotion and thoughts, or a make-believe story. The act of building a puppet is an act of expression in itself. The many types of material that puppets can be made of are endless, and the decision is all up to the creator. Explore the Kennedy Center’s collection of resources on puppetry to learn about these numerous and imaginative forms of puppetry invention and storytelling.

The puppets, set pieces, and costumes of Old MacDonald’s Symphony are all designed and made by Scottie Rowell, owner of Teller Productions and creator of the show. In this video, Scottie displays these objects, describing how they were created and the materials from which they are made.

Let’s Play Like Animals!   

Put on one of your favorite pieces of classical music. Or go to the Kennedy Center’s “Kids’ Classical Countdown” to listen to popular classical music, including Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown,” which is performed in Old MacDonald’s Symphony. Think of different animals to act like whenever the music changes. When the music gets fast, you can gallop like a horse. When it’s slow, you might waddle like a duck. It’s all about moving like animals to the beat of the music! What other animals do you hear within the music? Act it out!

Let’s Make Cardboard Instruments!   

Pick a kind of instrument to make, like a string instrument, drum, or shaker. You can stretch rubber bands over a cardboard box for guitar strings, use small cardboard boxes to make drums, or put rice or beans in cardboard tubes to make shakers. For more inspiration, check out this article for ideas on how to make your own instrument. Decorate your instrument however you like! Next, put on a song and play along with your instrument to the beat. You’ve created your own barnyard band!

Let’s Make a Paper Quilt!   

Give each person in your group a square of paper and some crayons or markers. Each person draws a picture of something they love, like a favorite animal, season, or family member. Then, connect all the squares on a larger piece of paper to create a big “quilt” made of everyone’s pictures!

The Vice President of Education is generously endowed by the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation.

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Genesis Inspiration Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.