Explore Together (indoors): Voice Volume

Materials

various toy instruments (one for each child)
video of musician playing instrument (optional)

Vocabulary

high
loud
low
quiet
volume

Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
Language/L.PK.MA.1.e: Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).

MA Draft Standards:

Physical Sciences/Matter and Its Interactions/PS4.B: Apply their understanding in their play of how to change volume and pitch of some sounds.
Physical Sciences/Energy PS4.A: Investigate different sounds made by different objects and different materials and reason about what is making the sounds. [Cause and Effect]
Life Sciences/From Molecules to Organisms/LS1/3.C: Use their sense in their exploration and play to gather information. [Structure and Function]

Head Start Outcomes:

Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Science Knowledge/Scientific Skills and Method: Uses senses and tools, including technology, to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

PreK Learning Guidelines:

English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Science and Technology/Living Things and Their Environment 15: Use their senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste to explore their environment using sensory vocabulary.

Explore Together (indoors): Voice Volume

STEM Key Concepts: Sounds have a source; Sounds vary in three ways: volume, pitch, and timbre

ELA Focus Skills: Follow Directions, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary

Display the instruments for children. Invite children to spend some time taking turns and playing the instruments. Then invite children to describe some of the sounds they made. Then say,

Everyone has a very powerful instrument of their own—it’s their voice!

Have children practice with the different sounds they can make with their voices. Invite them to say their names in loud, quiet, high, and low voices.
Then have children explore volume and quality of sounds with their voices (high, low, loud, soft.) Encourage them to make sounds that are not words, such as grunts and shushes.
Have children create patterns of sounds with their voices. Demonstrate for children by saying two loud clicks and one soft grunt. Ask, Can you repeat the sounds I just made?
Invite children to create and repeat sound patterns with a partner.

Reflect and Share
Play a game of “Follow the Leader.” Use the steps below to have children continue to explore their voices.

Have one child make a high, low, loud, soft, grumbly, etc., sound.
Then have a second child do the same.
Finally, have the whole group repeat the pattern.

Demonstrate the game for children by having one child say, I will make two soft sneeze sounds (achoo, achoo). Then have a second child say, I will make three loud pops (pop, pop, pop). Then have the group repeat the pattern (two soft sneeze sounds and then three loud pops).

Educator Tip: This is a noisy exploration, so you may want to do this activity outside or alert others.

Safety Note: Discuss ear safety with children. Ask, Why are ears important? What do they help us do? Explain that ears are important parts of the body that help us find out about the world. Say, Loud noises can hurt our ears. It is important that we protect our ears from very loud noises so that we can continue to hear the world around us.

Social Emotional Tip: Tell children how important it is to be aware that some people may be afraid of loud noises. Ask them not to yell or make a loud noise in another person’s ears. Say, If you are making a noise that seems to upset someone, then it is important to stop the noise right away.