Time: 6-8 weeks
This unit focuses on the development of the students' abilities to perceive sounds – that is, to hear sounds, to detect subtle characteristics among sounds, and to understand the effects of sounds. Activities in this unit are designed to help students discriminate between sounds and begin to recognize the distinctive characteristics and qualities of sounds. Activities and strategies allow students to explore sounds, to find out how sounds are made, and to extend their abilities to control and manipulate sounds.
Teacher Note:
Unit 1 has been developed as a sample unit for Grade 1 (available on CD-ROM and Saskatchewan Learning website).
Sample Topic: "Describing Sounds"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
Teacher Note:
The following Starter List of Activities is intended to aid the teacher in planning units. There is not enough time to complete all of the activities described in the Starter List of Activities. Teachers need to choose from this list or design other introductory, main, and concluding activities to meet the objectives of the curriculum and the needs and interests of their students.
The activities are described very briefly and are just a sample of the many activities that could be developed to explore the topic or theme.
1. Introductory Activities
Play or sing sounds from behind a screen and ask students to describe them (e.g., high/low, soft/loud, long/short, rough/smooth). Encourage students to use words from their own vocabularies to describe the sounds.
Set up a “sound centre” in which various sound-producing objects are placed. Encourage students to contribute objects. Encourage them to describe sounds and the qualities of the sounds produced using their own words.
Present various pictures of animals or read to students a storybook that features many different animals. Discuss the sounds of various animals. What are the sounds' characteristics? How can we tell the difference between animal sounds?
2. Main Activities
Ask the students to listen to the sounds in their classroom (e.g., coughing, whispering, lights, motors running, voices in the hall or next classroom, and other common daily sounds). Ask students to describe the sounds they hear in the classroom. Are they rough or smooth, fast or slow, high or low, loud or soft, long or short, pleasant or unpleasant? Use the terms pitch, tempo, duration, dynamics, and timbre to introduce the vocabulary of music. However, remember that grade 1 students are expected to describe the characteristics of sounds using their own language (e.g., fast/slow).
Listen to music (live or recorded) and talk about the characteristics of different voices and instruments.
Have students imitate sounds that are soft/loud, high/low, fast/slow, and long/short (e.g., animals, sounds from home and school).
Have students use movement to illustrate the characteristics of sounds (e.g., animal sounds).
Use hand and body movements to illustrate high/low and fast/slow.
Sing songs and identify the song's musical characteristics. These may be high/low, long/short, soft/loud, and/or fast/slow.
Conduct a sound treasure hunt, where students are asked to find sounds that go with musical characteristics (e.g., a fast sound, a high sound) and descriptive characteristics (e.g., a raspy sound, a hissing sound).
Have students draw or paint their visual interpretation of various sounds made by the teacher from found objects (e.g., blocks of wood tapping, a bell, or a sandpaper block). A few musical instruments could also be included, but the activity should not be limited to musical instruments. Discuss the students' visual interpretations. Can you tell from the art work which sounds they represent?
Have students create simple sound compositions based on certain sound characteristics. Give them specific instructions, such as, “Create a sound composition that has both low sounds and high sounds”, or “Create a sound composition that describes the way a turtle walks.”
3. Concluding Activities
If the students created sound compositions, have them perform them for each other. Discuss the characteristics of the sounds.
Have students listen for distinctive sounds in television programs. What makes the sounds (e.g., voices, instruments, or other objects)? Use the terms timbre or tone colour when discussing the unique characteristics of the sounds.
Have the students create a display where each student is responsible for finding a different sound to match a word given by the teacher. Words might include musical characteristics, such as fast, slow, high, or low. Also include words related to timbre, such as rough, smooth, whiny, or hissing.
Sample Topic: "Natural and Human-made Sounds"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory Activities
Discuss the natural and human-made environments. Make sure that students understand the difference. Have them identify sounds from each. Make a class list.
Sing songs that reflect something about the natural or constructed environment.
2. Main Activities
Listen for and identify various sounds in the natural and constructed environments:
As an assignment, ask the students to listen for sounds at home (e.g., sounds inside and sounds outside the house). Make a list of the sounds the students heard at home and, as a class, categorize them as natural or human-made. Compare and contrast the sounds. Are any of the sounds unusual? Are many of the sounds similar? How are they different? Make references to the elements of music so that students begin to enhance their music vocabulary.
Ask each of the students to bring an object from home to contribute to a sound centre or sound corner. Allow time for the students to experiment with their own sounds and encourage students to exchange and explore the sounds of other students. Talk about the sounds and their characteristics.
Experiment with making soft/loud, high/low, fast/slow, and long/short sounds with voices, objects from school or home, or with musical instruments.
3. Concluding Activities
Talk about the sounds in poems, stories, or pictures. Have students classify them as natural or human-made.
Have each student create a sound(s) to accompany their favourite song, poem, or story.
Teacher Note:
Encourage the students to explore freely and experiment with objects of all kinds in making sounds. Develop a large supply of sound sources; for example, sticks, utensils, blocks, metal or plastic objects, and tin cans.