Classroom Activities: Sound

These classroom activities are designed to complement the Sound topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Sound Off
If possible, take your class outside to the playground or to a park. Have your students bring notebooks and pencils. Ask them to sit as quietly as they can and listen to their surroundings. You may want them to close their eyes to help them concentrate. What do they hear? Have them write their ideas down and categorize which sounds are loud and quiet, or which sounds have high or low pitches. Then have your students share their findings with the class.

Thank You, Maestro

Ask different musicians to visit the class and share their instruments. If possible have them play a short song that showcases the range of their instruments. How do their instruments make sound? What is the highest or lowest note they can play? What is the softest or loudest sound they can make with their instruments? Have your students discuss each instrument and its sounds. What instrument would they like to play? Why?

Feeling Plucky

Divide the class into small groups and give each group several different lengths of string. Have two students hold the ends of one string and have another student pluck it. What do they see? What do they hear? Then have them repeat the activity using different lengths of string. What happens to the sound? What happens to the vibrations? Students can record their observations in a chart and share what they learned with the whole class.