Weekly Activities

Sounds In Our Environment The children identified items in our environment that make sounds.  For example, cars roar, horns beep, dogs bark, etc.  We made a collage of these items representing the sounds around us.  These collages prompted a discussion of how sounds make us feel. For example, some children said that they feel scared when they hear a dog barking, others said the same sound makes them feel happy. Graphing how the sound of a wolf  makes the children feel: 4 happy, 2 scared We continued this inquiry by listening to sound clips ranging from the ordinary (dog, bell) to the unordinary (alligator). The children had a lot of fun identifying these sounds.   After each clip, the children were asked how the felt when they heard the sound for the first time. For each sound, the children made a human bar graph representing their feelings.  Next week, we will explore "how does music make me think and feel". Reflection: what sounds ...

Sound & Vibration Our line of inquiry this week was “how sounds are created”. The children learned that energy is needed to create vibration and that vibration makes sound.  We used a drum to feel and hear how sound and vibration are connected.  As we were drumming, Jared noticed that if he placed his hand on the drum he could stop the vibration and the sound would also stop.   We continued Jared’s observation using triangles and cymbals making loud and soft sounds. The children found when they stopped the vibrations on the instruments, the sound stopped as well. We concluded this activity with comb kazoos.  The children made kazoos using combs and wax paper.  They ended with a rousing rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on their                                                 kazoos.   When we were con...

We have begun our new unit "Sound Travels".  It will be an 8 week inquiry into how  sound and music are used to represent people’s feelings, ideas and cultures. Our lines of inquiry are: How sounds are created and heard.  The different forms of music across cultures. Music and sound are used to express images, feelings, and thoughts. Trying different instruments. This week we began our formative week of inquiry to find out what the children know about sound and music. We viewed a website ( http://www.dsokids.com/)  that provided information about various instrument groupings such as woodwind, strings, and percussion.  The website allowed the children to see an image of the instrument and hear it play alone and within an orchestra.  The children loved the low sounds of the double bass and the tuba.   "This music makes me want to dance with a King." As the children listened to the various instruments play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Sta...