According to the story I tell to prepare the audience (and the stories vary according to grade level), "Peter and the Wolf" works for various reasons from kindergarten through fifth grade here at my school. I have to prepare most carefully the kindergartners because the wolf's swallowing of the duck could be too startling without preparation. I also prepare my younger children for the sounds of the horns and the drums, which are startling to young ears--and distrubing, too. I let the kindergartners and first graders lie down on the carpet here while listening, just as I did when I was young and listened to a recording of it my parents had given me.

Also, as part of the preparation, we've been looking and listening to the highlighted instruments from the work: the clarinet, the oboe, the bassoon, the flute, the string family, the kettle drums (I don't use the term timpani here as frequently as kettle drums), and the French horns. I can still recall that rush of fear caused by the horns! Even after almost fifty years of knowing the work.