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A FAMILY RESOURCE PACK
For children and adults to share
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The Story
Activity 1: Musical Characters
Activity 2: Bringing Peter to Life
Activity 3: 10 things about Russia
Activity 4: Cage the Wolf
Activity 5: Making things move
Parents
Credits
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
The Story
The story of Peter and the Wolf was written over 70 years
ago and is a favourite of children and adults almost
everywhere. It was written by the Russian composer
Sergei Prokofiev, and is special because it‟s a musical story
told by a symphony orchestra.
But more of this later. First…the story.
________________________________________________________
Early one morning Peter opened
the gate and went out into the
big green meadow.
On a
branch of a big tree sat a little
bird. Peter’s friend. “All is quiet”
chirped the bird gaily.
Just then a duck came waddling round. She was glad
that Peter had not closed the gate, and decided to take
a nice swim in the deep pond in the meadow.
Seeing the duck, the little bird few down upon the grass,
settled next to her and shrugged his shoulders.
“What kind of a bird are you if
you can’t fly?” said he. To this
the duck replied: “What kind of
a bird are you, if you can’t
swim?” and dived into the pond.
They argued and argued, the duck swimming in the pond,
the little bird hopping along the shore.
Suddenly
something caught Peter’s attention. He noticed a cat
crawling through the grass. The cat thought: “The bird is
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
busy arguing. I’ll just grab him.”
towards him on her velvet paws
Stealthily she crept
“Look out!” shouted Peter, and the bird immediately flew
up into the tree, while the duck quacked angrily at the
cat…from the middle of the pond.
The cat walked round the tree and thought: “Is it worth
climbing up so high? By the time I get there the bird will
have flown away.”
Grandfather came out. He was angry
because Peter had gone into the
meadow. “It is a dangerous place. If
a wolf should come out of the forest,
then what would you do?”
Peter paid no attention to his
grandfather’s words. Boys like him are
not afraid of wolves. But Grandfather took Peter by the
hand, locked the gate and led him home. No sooner had
Peter gone, than a big grey wolf came out of the forest.
In a twinkling the cat climbed
up the tree. The duck quacked,
and in her excitement jumped
out of the pond. But no matter
how hard the duck tried to
run…she couldn’t escape the
wolf. He was getting nearer
…nearer … catching up with her…and then he got her,
and with one gulp, swallowed her.
And now this is how things stood: the cat was sitting on
one branch, the bird on another…not too close to the cat.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
And the wolf walked round
and round the tree looking at
them with greedy eyes.
In the meantime, Peter, without
the slightest fear, stood behind
the closed gate watching all
that was going on. He ran home, got a strong rope and
climbed up the high stone wall. One of the branches of
the tree round which the wolf was walking stretched out
over the wall.
Grabbing hold of the branch Peter lightly climbed over on
to the tree.
Peter said to the bird: “fly down and circle round the
wolf’s head: only take care that he doesn’t catch you.”
The bird almost touched the wolf’s head with his wings
while the wolf snapped angrily at him from this side and
that. How the bird did worry the wolf!
How he wanted to catch him! But the
bird was cleverer, and the wolf simply
couldn’t do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Peter made a lasso, and
carefully letting it down caught the wolf
by the tail and pulled with all his might.
Feeling himself caught the wolf began to jump wildly
trying to get loose. But Peter tied the other end of the
rope to the tree and the wolf’s jumping only made the
rope round his tail tighter.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Just then…the hunters came out of
the woods following the wolf’s trail
and shooting as they went.
take him to the zoo.”
But Peter sitting in the tree said:
“don’t shoot!
Birdie and I have
caught the wolf. Now help us to
And there…imagine the triumphant procession. Peter at
the head. After him the hunters leading the wolf. And
winding up the procession Grandfather and the cat.
Grandfather tossed his head discontentedly: “Well, and if
Peter hadn’t caught the wolf? What then?”
Above them flew the birdie chirping merrily: “My, what
brave fellows we are, Peter and I! Look what we have
caught!”
And if one would listen very carefully, he would hear the
duck quacking inside the wolf; because the wolf in his
hurry had swallowed her alive.
________________________________________________________
When you see the film you will notice that sometimes
things are a little different from Prokofiev‟s story. This often
happens when a story is used for a play, a film or a
musical. It also gives a chance to look at things in a new
way, but without changing the basic story.
As you watch the film see if
you notice any changes,
and try to describe what the
differences are from when
you first read the story.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Activity 1: Musical Characters
Each of the characters in the story has their own music
played by different instruments of the orchestra.
See if you can work out which music goes with which
character by going to the Peter and the Wolf website and
playing the game before you go to the concert.
The characters are:
Peter
Cat
Bird
Duck Grand- Wolf Hunters
father
________________________________________________________
1. Make sure you are connected to the Internet
2. Click this picture
to enter the game1.
3. Click and hold the
mouse button on
each instrument to
hear the music. Does
it sound like one of
the characters?
4. Drag the instrument to the character to see if your
answer is correct.
Or enter this link into the address bar
www.breakthrufilms.co.uk/peterandthewolffilm/Peter%20and%20the%20Wolf%20Game.html
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Activity 2: Bringing Peter to life
This is the hero of our
story. Peter. The boy
who caught the Wolf.
In this film he is not a
real boy.
He is a
puppet, not much
bigger than the size of
this piece of paper.
How did he come to
look like this?
On the next two pages
you will find some
pictures that tell the
story of how Peter was
made, but they are
not in the right order.
Cut them out, and
using the clues on
pages 10 - 12 try to
work out the correct
order.
(The answers are on
pages
13
15)
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Cut along dotted line
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Cut along dotted line
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
1. This is one of the first sketches of
Peter, looking through the gate
into the forest
2. In this „line‟ drawing Peter starts
to come to life. Compare it with
„1‟. Can you see the difference.
3. Photos of real people helped
with deciding how Peter should
look. This is a young Russian boy
4. The next stage was to make a
coloured drawing of Peter‟s head.
See how different it is from „1‟.
5. This is the first model of Peter‟s
head. It is made from clay…even
his hair.
8. Peter‟s actual head was made
in a mould, and without hair
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
7. Peter‟s hair had to be added on
separately
8. A pattern had to be made for
the skin on Peter‟s face which was
made from latex, a sort of rubber
9. Models were made of all the
characters. Here is Peter with his
two friends, the bird and the duck.
10. Different colours of material for
Peter‟s clothes were tested
alongside other objects in the film.
11. The scale down the side of this
picture of Peter in his clothes helps
to keep everything to the right size.
12. Underneath his clothes his body
was made from foam and latex
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
13. Inside his body is a special
frame so that his arms and legs
can move.
14. Suzie, the director, checks to
see that his arms and legs can
move
15. The frame inside his body helps
in moving him to different positions.
Here he is sitting on a rock.
16. At last Peter is ready and he is
put on the film set by one of the
animators.
17. Here he is being photographed
by the camera crew on the film set
with his grandfather.
18. This is how the picture of Peter
and his grandfather looks through
the camera in „17‟.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Answers:
1. This is one of the first sketches of
Peter, looking through the gate
into the forest
2. In this „line‟ drawing Peter starts
to come to life. Compare it with
„1‟. Can you see the difference.
3. Photos of real people helped
with deciding how Peter should
look. This is a young Russian boy
4. The next stage was to make a
coloured drawing of Peter‟s head.
See how different it is from „1‟.
5. This is the first model of Peter‟s
head. It is made from clay…even
his hair.
6. Peter‟s actual head was made
in a mould, and without hair
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Answers:
7. Peter‟s hair had to be added
on separately
8. A pattern had to be made for
the skin on Peter‟s face which was
made from latex, a sort of rubber
9. Models were made of all the
characters. Here is Peter with his
two friends, the bird and the duck.
10. Different colours of material for
Peter‟s clothes were tested
alongside other objects in the film.
11. The scale down the side of this
picture of Peter in his clothes helps
to keep everything to the right size
12. Underneath his clothes his body
was made from foam and latex
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Answers:
13. Inside his body is a special
frame so that his arms and legs
can move.
14. Suzie, the director, checks to
see that his arms and legs can
move
15. The frame inside his body helps
the animator to move him to
different positions.
16. At last Peter is ready to go to
work. Here he is in the forest sitting
on a rock.
17. Here he is being photographed
on the film set his grandfather and
the camera crew.
18. This is how the picture of Peter
and his grandfather looks through
the camera in „17‟.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Activity 3: Ten things about Russia
Peter and the Wolf is a story that comes from Russia.
It is a country that has a long and very complicated
history, and over the last 100 years many changes have
taken place.
Here
are some interesting facts.
United States
1. Country: Russia is the biggest country in the world. You
could fit almost two United States, or two Chinas inside
Russia.
How big is your country compared to Russia?
Russia
China
United
States
China
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
2. People: Although Russia is the biggest country in the
world, it has only half as many people as the United States.
China has about ten times more than Russia.
Russia – 140,000,000
United States – 301,000,000
China – 1,320,000,000
How many people are there in your country?
3. River: Russia has the longest river in Europe. It is called
the Volga and it flows for more than 3,700 kilometres
before it reaches the sea.
There is a very famous traditional song from Russia called
The song of the Volga boatmen2.
This is the famous picture by the Russian artist Repin on
which the song is based.
What is the name of the longest river in your country?
2
This version on YouTube is performed by the famous bass singer Boris Christoff
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
4. Flag: This is the national flag of Russia. It has only been
used since 1993.
What does your country‟s flag look like?
5. Money: The name of the money people use is the ruble
There are 100 kopeks to each ruble
What is the name of the money you use in your country?
6. Writing: When people write in Russian they use a special
sort of alphabet called the Cyrillic Alphabet. It has 33
letters and looks like this.
АБВГДЕЖЗИЙК
ЛМНОПРСТУФХ
ЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯ
ПЕТЯиВОЛК
This is Peter and the Wolf in Russian:
How is the way you write different from this?
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
7. Dolls: You may have seen these dolls before. They are
a traditional toy and starting with the smallest, each doll
fits inside the next until they are all inside the biggest doll.
They are known as Matryoshka Dolls, or nesting dolls
Are there any traditional toys in your country?
What are they?
8. Kremlin: Moscow is the capital city of Russia. In the
centre of the city is one of its most famous buildings. It is
called the Kremlin and a long time ago it was used as the
home for the person who ruled Russia. The Tsar.
This is a picture of the Kremlin
What most important building where you live?
have a special name?
Does it
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
9. Balalaika: One of the traditional instruments of Russia is
the Balalaika. They come in different sizes and are played
like a guitar. Click to listen to a Balalaika
What are the traditional instruments of your country?
10. Caviar: It may seem strange, but
this is one of the most famous foods to
come from Russia. It is called caviar
and they are the tiny black eggs that
come from a fish called a sturgeon.
You can get caviar from other
countries too, but the best is thought
to come from Russia. It can be very
expensive.
What would you say are some of the best known foods
from your country?
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Fold
Activity 4: Cage the Wolf
This activity shows you
how
to
make
a
Thaumatrope.
(thaw-ma-trope).
Card
1.
Fold
2.
Insert and glue
4.
Make holes
It was an early form of
animation
popular
about 150 years ago.
Follow the instructions
opposite to „Cage the
Wolf‟.
3.
Cut
A.Twist
You will need this piece
of paper, scissors, card,
glue and two loops of
thread
B.Pull
5.
Thread
6.
Fold
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Activity 5: Making things Move
Animation is the word we use to describe the way still
pictures or puppets can be made to appear to move.
Cartoons are a sort of animation. Here are two simple
ways in which you can animate pictures.
________________________________________________________
Below you have two pictures; both are taken from an
early design stage of Peter and the Wolf. One is a little
different from the other. Can you see the difference?
Cut out both strips and glue „A‟ on top of „B‟.
Cut
A
Roll
Cut
B
Cut
Add
glue
here
Cut
Roll „A‟ around a pencil.
By moving the pencil backwards
and forwards you can change the
faces of the boys.
Draw your own pictures and make them move.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
You can create a longer animation by making a Flick
Book.
A simple way to do this is by using one of the special sticky
notepads you find in an office.
You need to draw on each piece of paper, but
like with the animation of the two boys above,
the pictures have to be slightly different from
each other. You might like to start first with a
simple matchstick figure.
Once you have completed a series of pictures „flick‟
through the pages.
Peter and the Wolf is made from a number of pictures too.
But instead of a drawing, each picture is a photograph.
After each photograph was taken the puppets were
moved into a slightly different position. The photographs
were then joined together to make the film
Here is a short section from an early stage of the film itself.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Parents
This animated film of Peter and the Wolf is only 30 minutes long. However its length
belies the huge effort involved in its creation; from the original concept to its
premiere in the Royal Albert Hall in September 2006 it took over 3 years to make, and
involved over 100 technical and production staff in the UK, Poland and France. It is a
tribute to this endeavour that it received the Academy Award, the Oscar, for the
best short animated film in 2008.
Although it has DVD and television formats, it was originally conceived to be shown
with the backing of a live orchestra. This is the way in which you will see it when you
go to the concert.
This Educational Resource has been designed to give both young people (from 8 to
11 years) and adults who attend the concert a little more insight into the
background of the film; its music, the process of creating an animation, and the
country from which the story originated; Russia. We suggest that you might spend a
little time together exploring these resources prior to the concert and it may be useful
also to print and bring the results of Activity 1 with you.
Peter and the Wolf was made using a technique known as „stop-frame‟ animation;
where puppets are manipulated and photographed frame by frame. It is a process
involving a great deal of manual dexterity in the design and manipulation of the
materials, therefore in the spirit of the film we have encouraged more practically
based skills, so you will need scissors, pencils and glue. We assume from the fact that
you are reading this document that you have access to a computer, but a colour
printer would also be beneficial.
For those interested in a little more background information we have included a
short history of the composer Sergei Prokofiev and the story behind the creation of
the original version of Peter and the Wolf.
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
ORCHESTRA Details: To be completed by Orchestra
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953)
Alongside Igor Stravinsky and Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev was one of the
most influential composers of the 20th century to come from Russia. He was born in
the farming village of Sontsovka in what is now the Ukraine.
Despite this rural background he was brought into contact with music whilst very
young by his mother who became by far the greatest musical influence on him in
early life. She was an accomplished pianist and under her guidance he too
became a formidable performer. His first composition, Indian Galop was written with
her help at the age of five and it started him on a career as a composer that
spanned a wide range of musical genres including 7 symphonies, 5 piano concertos,
10 operas, 9 ballets, 10 film scores, 11 piano sonatas, 9 cantatas and a host of
chamber and choral music. From his early childhood he kept a meticulous set of
composition notebooks which he called his little puppies. These musical sketches
served him well throughout his life and would be used and reconstituted in a variety
of forms.
From this time also he developed a love of fairy tales and an appreciation of
traditional folklore, both of which he would draw upon extensively in his compositions.
Prokofiev was taken to Moscow at the age of nine, when he saw his first operas;
Gounod's Faust and Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor. Upon returning home he
attempted his own first opera The Giant, and by the age of 10 he was receiving
piano lessons from the composer and pianist Reinhold Gliere. By the time he was
thirteen he had entered the world famous Moscow Conservatory of Music and
became a pupil of the musical giants of the day, Alexander Glazunov, Anatol Liadov
and Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov, who was also to have a profound influence on
Stravinsky.
He left his homeland in 1918 spending much time in American and Europe and
although he made a number of return visits he did not take up permanent residence
again until 1936. By this time, politically, Russia was a
radically different country from that he had left
eighteen years earlier and as with many composers
of this period the imprint of Stalin was to leave its
mark on his artistic output.
In addition to his work for the concert stage he had
an intense interest in music for film, and his return to
Russia also marks the start of a relationship,
extraordinary in its synchronicity, that he formed with
the famous director Sergei Eisenstein. Before they
met he had already completed his first score for film
for the film Lieutenant Kijé; the unlikely tale by Yuri
Tynianov of the soldier/hero who lived to be
decorated by the Tsar, but who didn't actually exist!
With Eisenstein however he went on to create scores
for the epic Alexander Nevsky in 1939, followed shortly by scores for Lermontov (1941),
Partisans in the Ukranian Steppes (1942), Tonya (1942), Kotovsky (1942), and Ivan the
Terrible (1942- 5). He even undertook a special trip to Hollywood during his last tour of
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
the United States in 1938 in order to study the techniques of filmmakers and
composers in the studios, with an eye towards taking the knowledge back with him
to the Soviet Union. Alexander Nevsky afforded Prokofiev the opportunity to apply
what he had learned and it is interesting to note the later influence he had upon
composers such as John Williams - compare the music for Jaws with the music for the
Battle on the Ice from Alexander Nevsky.
Prokofiev died on the March 5, 1953, on the same day as Joseph Stalin, leaving
behind a legacy of some 135 compositions.
Peter and the Wolf - Background
Prokofiev had a lifelong interest in folk tales and children's stories and often used
them as a basis for his compositions. We see this in his first, fledgling opera The Giant,
written when he was nine, through to the miniature cantata based on Hans Christian
Andersen's The Ugly Duckling, and on to the ballets Cinderella and A Tale of the
Stone Flower. His compositions include also many children's songs and piano pieces.
In 1936 he was approached
by Natalia Satz of the
Moscow Children's Music
Theatre to write a new
musical symphony just for
children. The intention was to
cultivate 'musical tastes in
children from the first years of
school.' Intrigued by the
invitation,
Prokofiev
completed Peter and the
Wolf in just four days and
although the debut on the
2nd May 1936 was, in the
composer's
words,
inauspicious
at
best:
Prokofiev and Natalia Satz give the first play-through of Peter and the
Wolf to an impromptu audience at Moscow's Theatre of the Young
"(attendance) was rather
Spectator, 1936
poor and failed to attract
much attention.", this symphonic folk tale became a perennial favourite delighting
audiences worldwide irrespective of their age. In addition to the deft musical
characterisation of the protagonists, each associated with a different instrument of
the orchestra, a large part of its appeal lies in Prokofiev's genius as an orchestrator.
The piece showcases his superb ability to bring a simple story to life, making the
characters “visible” through the use of simple instrumental combinations and a
natural sense of musical narrative.
In an interview in 2000 his son, Sviatoslav, described the first performance which he
attended as a child in May 1936 at the Moscow Central Pioneer Palace;
“I remember visiting one of the first performances of "Peter and the Wolf" in 1936 in
the hall of the Moscow Pioneer Palace. The hall was full, there were a lot of children
in motley clothes and the abundance of red colour amazed me! An exciting, festive
and unusual atmosphere reigned -- everybody was speaking Russian! It was my first
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
attendance of a concert in Moscow -- with my father and his music. The text of
"Peter and Wolf" was expressively and brilliantly read by Natalia Satz -- a young
attractive woman who, as the action went on, was transformed into Peter or
Grandfather or the Wolf or the Duck! It was a great success, the children were joyfully
shouting.
Father and Natalia Satz came out many times to bow. I remember how all of our
family was returning on foot along the boulevard with a pond where real ducks were
swimming. It was a beautiful sunny day in May. Father was pleased and walked
joyously and excited, recalling various episodes of the concert. The family had just
successfully moved to Moscow and nothing foreshadowed the soon-to-come tragic
events of 1937-48.”
(Prokofiev. Org)
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Peter and the Wolf – Family Resource Pack
Credits
Educational resources created by:
Michael Spencer
Creative Arts Net
www.creative-arts.net
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