Overview

In this activity students will investigate the sounds that they experience in their school. This will help students start to pay more attention to sounds and connect specific sonic experiences to vocabulary and emotions. 

Instructions

Let's investigate the sounds of your school! 

1. Take a walk around the school, listening for interesting sounds as you go. At each of four destinations, take 1 minute to silently listen to the site. How would you describe it? Is there an echo? Is it loud or muffled? Are there layers of sounds? Write a sentence in your workbook about what the site sounds like.
2. After listening to the sounds of the site and identifying the qualities of the sound, try to replicate it with your voice and body.

Back in the classroom, you should have four site sounds that you all know and can copy. Now let’s play with them!

1.  Break into four groups, one for each sound, and go to different corners of the room. 
2. When your teacher points at group, that group will make their collected sound. When she holds up her hand like a stop sign to a group, the group will stop making their sound. In this way, the teacher will be the conductor, playing different groups' sound together in different combinations. (Students could also try being the conductor!)
   
   

Optional extension activity: Sounds of your Community

Now that you've investigated the sounds at your school, lets expand, and go on a listening walk in your community. Visit the Charlestown Bells, a section of the Greenway, or the hockey rink, and talk about what those places sound like.