- audio player
- materials to generate sounds
- recordings of various types of music
- rubber band guitars
- shakers
- tubes
- toy or real musical instruments
- fast
- high
- loud
- low
- music
- musical instrument
- scrape
- tap
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening:SL.PK.MA.2 Recall information for short periods of time and retell, act out, or represent information from a text read aloud, a recording, or a video (e.g., watch a video about birds and their habitats and make drawings or constructions of birds and their nests)
MA Draft Standards:
Physical Sciences/Matter and Its Interactions: Structures and Properties of Matter PS1.B Differentiate between the properties of an object and those of the material of which it is made in science explorations and activities such as art and music.
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]
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
Social Emotional Development/Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy Identifies personal characteristics, preferences, thoughts, and feelings.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2 Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Explore Together (indoors): Responding to Sound
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Different objects make different sounds; Sounds vary in three ways: volume (loud or soft), pitch (high or low), and timbre (quality)
ELA Focus Skills: Creative Expression, Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Display musical instruments for children to see. Play a piece of music for children to listen to. After listening, bring children’s attention to the instruments and have them choose one. Have children name the instrument they chose and describe the sound it makes.
Play the music again and have children join in with their instruments, playing to the beat. Observe children as they play and ask questions such as, Can you make a higher sound on your instrument? How are you making that loud, screechy sound? (tapping, scraping, beating). Help children connect the music to the sounds they are making on their instruments.
Reflect and Share
Replay the music for children a third time. Ask children to share the sounds they made and the instruments they used. Say, Tony, you were making fast, low sounds with the rubber band guitar. How were you making those sounds? How were they like the sounds in the music? Ask children to share the sounds they made to match the music.