I’ve just been playing with this wonderful resource after spotting a tweet from Paula Jamieson from the Te Whakatipuranga Hou ICTPD Cluster. As someone who used to play second violin in the school orchestra, I’ve always enjoyed introducing young learners to the delights of the orchestra and the ways in which all the different instruments can combine their unique voices to produce such wonderful symphonies of sound.

This animated guide to the orchestra from animatedscience is a really fun and easy to use introduction to the orchestra for students. Combining the full sound of an orchestra playing with a number of interactive quizzes, it’s an easy way to review what the various instruments are named and where they are positioned in the orchestra. I recall when I was at teacher’s college spending hours creating a similar activity using overhead transparencies – but this beats what I produced hands-down!

Thanks to Animatedscience, and to Paula for bringing it to my attention 🙂