Carnival of the Animals at Melbourne Zoo

Just arrived and find a spot to sit.

The main reason for our trip to the Melbourne Zoo on Monday was to to watch the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform Carnival of the Animals.

This member from the MSO sat on the floor and chatted with the kids.
He explained to Sir N which instrament he plays and let him look and touch the mallets he uses to play. 

The 11 member performing arrived tuned their instruments. Once they were ready the conductor came out and introduced the instruments and Noni Hazlehurst who was our host and read an adaptation of Ogden Nash's Poem between each section of music.  It was a wonderful introduction to the Orchestra.

Members of the MSO tuning up and preparing for the conductor and performance.

On the WWW

• A Musical Carnival of the Animals! over at Squidoo.com
• Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals Coloring Book and Other Resources
• Carnival of the Animals interactive site 
• 15+ Fantastic Free Carnival of the Animals Resources.\

On YouTube

• Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals.
• Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival Of Animals - Complete & LiVe. The complete music score without the poem.
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Le Carnaval Des Animaux [complete recording]Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra - Bystrick Rezucha

Did you know that the MSO performs Free concerts ?  The next one will be at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in February 2013. Coming up in November is the MSO Classic Kids! Maximus Musicus.

Blessings
Chareen

Carnival of the Animals 

Performed with Ogden Nash's Poem

Narrated by Noel Coward for this 1949 recording.

Melbourne Zoo and Mali (The one with lots of photo's)

The guard at the entrance to the Carousel Park

On Monday we went to the zoo to watch the MSO perform Carnival of the Animals. It's Melbourne Zoo's 150th birthday and to celebrate they have an elephant theme.  In August we went to Federation Square to meet the Olympians and while we were there we saw these statues of elephants dotted around as part of the Mali in the City program.  Loved them.

I loved the pictures on this one.

So yesterday we went for a trip to Melbourne Zoo where all 50 Mali statues are currently on display in front of the Carousel Park. We took some time to look at them as they will be auctioned off  on 17-18 October at the Carousel Park.

I took heaps of photo's of the Mali's but there were heaps of people and loads of pic's on my camera so I've made some collages for you.  To see them more clearly click on them and they will open up to fill your screen.

 If you would like to see some great close ups and detail photography of each elephant, Fresh Photography has three pages of photos of Mali in Melbourne.

1. Elephants in Melbourne - Pictures of Mali!  (20 Mali's)
2. Elephant Sculptures in Melbourne - Pictures of Mali Part II (15 Mali's)
3. Melbourne's Elephant Art - Pictures of Mali Part III (15 Mali's)

You can find some Facebook albums on Mali by Fresh Photography and Jay S.Cook. theage.com.au has a photo album Mali in Melbourne to look at as well.

YouTube has some great clips:

• Mali in the City by Melbourne Zoo (1:39)
• "Elephantasy" Time Lapse painting. (2:08)
• Graeme Base unveils the First Mali in the City Sculpture.
• "Neo-Composite Elephant" Time Lapse by Jacqueline Gwynne. (9:57)

Around the Carousel are another 55 mini Mali elephant statues that were decorated by students at schools around Victoria.  These will be returned to their origins for permanent displays.

We had a wonderful time exploring these sculptures and seeing the variety of ideas expressed were great.

These are my top three:

Blessings
Chareen

TT - Charles Dickens and Friends

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Learning All the Time Favourite Resource Link Up. 


This week ...

Charles Dickens and Friends

Five lively retellings by

Marcia Williams

• Format: Paperback
• Number of Pages: 48 pages
• Vendor:  Walker Books Ltd
• Publication Date: 2007
• ISBN 13: 9781406305630 
• ISBN 10: 1406305634
• Author : Marcia Williams
• Illustrator: Marcia Williams

Main description

Five of Dickens' most famous works are introduced in an exciting comic book style. Whilst retaining the characteristic feel of the Dickensian language, this book is highly accessible and is suitable for use at Key Stage 2. Ages: 7+.

This book has been the highlight of my past week.  I was at the op shop and found it.  I have been wanting to read Dickens to Sir N and this will be perfect.  Each page is just beautifully illustrated and there is enough of Dickensian language to capture and hold the imagination.  Marcia has done an absolute superb job of this book.  Love this book.  Pop on over to The Book Depository and see the range of books Marcia has written and illustrated.

The book contains these five books retold in comic format

1. Great Expectations
2. Oliver Twist
3. A Christmas Carol
4. David Copperfield
5. A Tale of two Cities 

Blessings

Check out Marcia's website