Sound Travels 1 - Form of sound

Strumming the elastic bands.

What is sound like? The children explored the concept of the form(recognizable features which can be observed, identified, described and categorized) of sound.

How would sound 'look' like from a xylophone?

The children found the answer to the question through experiments and by watching a video clip. First, the children stretched out an elastic band on their fingers and tried to pluck it. They heard a sound and saw the elastic bands vibrate on their fingers. Next, we wanted to see what would happen if we stop the vibrations. We played a key on the xylophone and immediately put a finger on that key. The children noticed that the sound stopped when the vibration stopped. Together, we concluded that sound is vibration.

Sound waves from a tamborine.

Observing sound waves from their voices.

To further their understanding of sound, we watched a video called Sounds from Brainpop Jr. and the children learned that vibrations can create sound waves. Orin asked, "Is it like waves in the ocean?" I explained to the children that we can't see sound waves but we can hear it. To help the children "see" sounds, we used an App called Wavepad on ipad. They were intrigued when their voices turned into waves on the screen. They noticed that if they talked loudly, their wave length would look bigger and if they talked gently, it would look smaller.