Please try to do one or more of the below activities.

1. 

Sit down in a comfortable space, close their eyes and listen carefully to a short piece of music. Talk about the music, explaining what it makes them think or how it makes them feel. Listen to different types of music (fast, slow, loud and quiet) and compare how different pieces make them feel. Choose and describe their favourite one.

Note: Allow children’s imaginations to run wild. Recordings in a writing or drawing area so children can choose to listen again, responding with a drawing or piece of writing.

2.

Plot a range of different sounds heard indoors and outdoors on a sound map, indicating the location of each sound. Sit in a quiet area to listen carefully and mark the sounds they hear with a cross on their maps, labelling each cross with the name or source of the sound.

Note: Sound maps are easily constructed by folding an A4 piece of paper in half and then half again, before unfolding to reveal the four quarters. Ask the children to draw a small picture of themselves where the lines cross in the middle. When in the chosen location, they should be encouraged to listen carefully for a few minutes, marking on their paper when they hear a sound, ensuring that the sound is placed in the correct quarter (in front, behind, left or right). Ask questions, such as ‘Did everybody hear the same thing? How did the sounds change? How can we sort these sounds in different ways?’ Repeat the activity in different places and make comparisons.

3.

Make a rubber band guitar from recycled packaging and elastic bands. Use appropriate tools to cut a hole in a box or carton and stretch rubber bands of different thicknesses across the hole. Pluck the rubber bands to see how their thickness affects the pitch of the sound created. Identify and explain how sounds with different pitches and volume are made.

Note: The sound hole over which the rubber bands are suspended in the junk guitar amplifies and projects the vibration of the rubber bands. Old cereal boxes, yoghurt pots, plastic ice cream tubs and tin cans will all make interesting instruments. Encourage children to choose recycled materials independently, considering which they think will make an effective sound when the rubber bands are plucked. Ask children to experiment with the elastic bands they use.