Activity 1: Hear, make and feel tones / noises

Catagory: Sound / cassette-recorder

Target group: 35 to 6 year old children in kindergarten or daycare

Aim: - hear and classify noises

 - make sounds with the  body and the voice

 - build an instrument („stringed boxes")

Where: Outside / the group’s room

How long? Approx. 1 hour

What? Listen to sounds, build an instrument

Preparation:

material:

symbol cards, a triangle, different boxes, rubber bands colour pencils

Steps:

Situation / Problem:

We are surrounded by different sounds. At different places outside the children close their eyes, listen to noises and tell the others what they have heard.

Exploring – Developing Phase:

The children make noises with their bodies, make loud and soft tones only with their voice, put their fingers on their neck and feel their vocal chords.

The children imitate sounds of animals they see on the symbol cards.

The children hear the tone of a triangle and they follow the tone with closed or bandaged eyes.

The children build an instrument – the nursery school teacher supports them - with boxes and rubber bands, they experiment with the instrument by shoving colour pencils under the rubber bands. Different sounds are produced.

Scientific Explanation:

When you put a finger on your neck you feel that the vocal chords tremble more when the tone is low and that they swing less when the tone is high.

Boxes of different sizes produce different tones. The rubber band emitts a tone by vibrating. The empty box serves as an orchestra. The rubber bands can swing better this way.

Attention!

Source:

Aerdley, Neil und Burnie, David: Spannende Experimente aus Natur und Technik. Bindlach 1998