Materials
- Glasses of water with different amounts
- tops for spinning simple musical
- instruments
- tape of sounds around the house
What to do
1. Talk about sound. Ask the children to sit perfectly still and listen carefully to the sounds around them. Discuss the sounds they hear (e.g., noise from outside, noises from other classrooms, slight sounds of movement in the room).
2. Listen to walking sounds. Ask different children to walk as the rest of the children listen. Do they hear any sound? Do different children make different sounds? After three or four children have walked, ask the rest of the children to close their eyes and see if they can identify which child is walking.
3. Explore making sounds. Pour a different amount of water into several glasses. Tap each one and encourage the children to notice the differences in the sounds.
4. Spin tops and ask the children to listen to the sounds.
5. Show and use musical instruments and ask the children to identify how the sound was made: through blowing, striking, or rubbing across.
6. Play a tape of household sounds. Challenge the children to identify what each sound is (e.g., dishwasher, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and so on).
7. Play a game of animal sounds. Ask a child to make an animal sound and ask the others to guess what it is. The first to guess gives the next sound.
-Lucy Fuchs, Brandon, FL
