Feb 9, 2009 - Feb 13, 2009

Mon, Feb 9

Lesson 1: (30-40 minutes) Searching for Sound

Tue, Feb 10
Objective: Heighten awareness of and attention to sounds,
recognize how sounds originate from a source, and develop
detailed and accurate descriptions of sound.

Overview: Children focus on listening carefully and making

detailed descriptions of sound as they become “sound
detectives” who search for, identify, and describe their
surroundings.

Materials: Heavy book to drop, chart paper to make list of

sound related terms, pencil to tap to produce sound demo.,
science notebook pg 2 and 3.
Wed, Feb 11

Lesson 2: (30-40 minutes) What makes sound?

Thu, Feb 12
Lincoln's Birthday Objective: Understand that vibration is a regular back and
forth motion, identify that sounds are produced by vibrations.

Overview: During a science talk, children explore their ideas

about how sound is produced. They learn what a vibration is,
and that all sound areproduced by vibrations. They generate
a variety of sounds by making different materials vibrate.

Materials: Center 1: roasting pan and spoon Center 2: 5

rubber bands (assorted sizes) Center 3: plastic bottles (one
per student with names on them) Center 4: 2 rulers

Other materials: chart paper to make a sound is vibration

chart, 1 meter/yard sticks for sensory observations, class set
of class safety goggles, sound science notebook pg 4
Fri, Feb 13
 Feb 16, 2009 - Feb 20, 2009

Mon, Feb 16
President's Day ***Professional Development Day

Lesson 3: (30-40 minutes) Sounds travels through many

Tue, Feb 17 things

Objective: Recognize that sound travels through air and

other materials. Deduce, as a result of experimentation that
sound travels through some materials better than others.

Overview: Children establish that sound travels through air.

They experiment with sound traveling through many different
materials. They conduct tests to discover that sound travels
through some substances better than others.

Materials: For Pencil experiment- foam pad, plastic lid,

roasting pan, slide whistle, chart paper to record results,
pencils, pillow, desk, science notebook page 5 and 6
Wed, Feb 18

Thu, Feb 19
***Field Trip: Hands on Museum: Will focus on sound centers
and information during field trip.

Fri, Feb 20
***Mid-winter break begins
 Feb 23, 2009 - Feb 27, 2009
No School
Mon, Feb 23

No School
Tue, Feb 24

Wed, Feb 25 No school

 No school
Thu, Feb 26

No school
Fri, Feb 27

March 2, 2009 - March 6, 2009

Mon, March
2 ***School Resumes

Tue, March Lesson 4: (30-40 minutes) How sound travels.

3 Objective: Learn that sound vibrations can cause vibrations

in other materials, recognize that sound travels by way of
vibrations in the air or in other materials.

Overview: Children do an activity that demonstrates how

the vibration of a sound source can cause vibrations of other
materials. They use this activity as the basic explanation and
discussion of how sound travels.

Materials: 22 medium paper cups, 11 pepper packets,

 plastic wrap, rubber bands, pencils to tap on cups, sound
science notebook pg 7,

Wed, March
4

Thu, March Lesson 5: (30-40 minutes) Sound through a string.

5 Objective: Discover that sound vibrations can be

transmitted through a cup-and-string telephone, find ways to
affect the transmission of sound vibrations.

Overview: Children continue to explore sound vibrations and

sound transmissions as they send secret messages to one
another using cup-and-string telephones. While
experimenting with their telephones, the children find several
ways to affect the transmission of their messages.

Materials: cotton string (cut into 5 meter lengths), 22

medium paper cups, 22 paper clips to secure string to cups,
science notebook pg 8 and 9
Fri, March 6
***Kids Fair

March 9, 2009 – March 13, 2009

Mon, March
9

Tue, March Lesson 6: (30-40 minutes) Ears Hear

10 Objective: Learn about the main parts of the ear, recognize

how sound travels into and through the ear, understand that
the inner ear translates sound vibrations into signals that get
sent to the brain.

Overview: Children enact how sound travels through the

three main parts of the ear to better understand how ears
hear. Student volunteers act out various parts of the ear.

Materials: rubber bands to attach labels for ear parts to

children’s arms, string to represent auditory nerve and tiny
hairs in the cochlea prop, chair for the “stir up” to balance
against during the enactment, plastic bottle, overhead of “ear
bones”, overhead of “ear diagram”, science notebook page
10, teacher masters “ear labels.”
Wed, March
11

Thu, March Lesson 7: (30-40 minutes)

12 Objective: Discover that sound vibrations can be

***Videotape lesson transmitted through a cup-and-string telephone, find ways to
and write extended affect the transmission of sound vibrations.
lesson plan
Overview: Part 1: Children listen to and compare sounds
that have different pitches and describe them as high,
middle, or low. Children explore various pitch stations.

Part 2: Children explore ways of changing pitch using a

variety of sound-producing materials. They identify which
parts vibrate to make a sound, and reflect on the relationship
between vibration and pitch.
 Materials: plastic bowls and chopsticks for drums, PVC tubes
of different lengths to experiment with pitch, rope, rubber
bands of assorted sizes, rulers, slide whistle, trash bags,
chart paper, chimes, glass jars, meter stick, plastic tub,
science notebook pages 11-14,
Fri, March ***continue lesson 7 if not enough time Thursday.

13

March 16, 2009 - March 20, 2009

Mon, March
16

Tue, March Lesson 8: (30-40 minutes) Exploring Volume

17 Objective: Investigate ways to change volume by hitting,

blowing, or strumming materials harder or softer, investigate
ways to amplify sounds by adding a sound box of sound tube,
distinguish between pitch and volume and use appropriate
descriptors for each, consider the relationship between
volume and the size of vibrations.

Overview: Children experiment with changing the volume of

sounds by tapping, blowing, or strumming a variety of
materials harder or softer, and amplifying sounds with a
“sound box” and “sound tube” They identify materials that
vibrate to make a sound, and consider the relationships
 between vibration and volume.

Materials: chopsticks to tap to make sound, rubber bands

(large size) to pluck to make sound, cardboard boxes to make
sound boxes, paper to make sound tubes., sound science
notebook page 15
Wed, March
18

Thu, March Lesson 9: (30-40 minutes) Designing Musical Instruments

19 Objective: Explain how a homemade instrument will vibrate

to produce sound, and describe how to change the pitch and
volume of an instrument.

Overview: Children apply their knowledge of sound and

vibration by using a variety of common materials to design
percussion, wind, or stringed instruments. They plan and
draw pictures of their designs, and then explain how their
instruments will work. The instruments need to be able to
change pitch and volume.

Materials: Various recycled materials from scrap box and

home to make instruments (beans, tape, string, chopsticks,
cups, bowls, popcorn kernels, dowels, electrical tape, nylon,
trash bags, popciclesticks, masking tape, tins, aluminum,
boxes, etc. Science notebook pages 16-20
Fri, March
20

March 23, 2009 – March 27, 2009

Mon, March
23 ***Field Trip to Natural Science Museum

***Multi-Cultural Day
 Tue, March Lesson 10: (30-40 minutes) Building a musical instrument

24 Objective: Experiment with different materials to determine

***Videotape lesson how to build a stringed, percussion, or wind instrument that
and write expanded can change pitch and volume.
lesson plan
Overview: Children experiment with using various materials
to build the musical instrument they designed in the previous
lesson. They redesign their instruments, if necessary, and
discuss any problems they have implementing their designs.

Materials: bags or boxes t o store supplies for instruments in

progress, labels, science notebook pages 17-19 and 21-24
Wed, March
25

Thu, March Lesson 11: (30-40 minutes) Refining musical instruments

26 Objective: Evaluate whether a building buddy’s self-

designed musical instrument meets the project criteria, refine
or redesign musical instruments as needed, be able to
explain the parts of their instrument that vibrates to produce
sound and how the instrument changes pitch and volume,
and become adept at changing the pitch and volume of a
self-designed instrument.
Overview: Children work with a “building buddy” to
evaluate, refine and, if necessary, redesign their musical
instruments.

Materials: cotton string (cut into 5 meter lengths), 22

medium paper cups, 22 paper clips to secure string to cups,
science notebook pg 8 and 9
Fri, March
27
 March 30, 2009 – April 2, 2009

Mon, March
30

Tue, March ***Field Trip to University of Michigan’s Natural Science

Museum.
31

Students wrote invitations to families inviting them to their

Wed, April 1 “Sounds of Music” performance.

Thu, April 2
 Fri, April 3

April 6, 2009 – April 10, 2009

Mon, April 6

Tue, April 7

Wed, April 8 Lesson 12: (60 minutes) Sharing Instruments with peers
and parents
***Video tape lesson
and write extended Objective: Describe the sources of vibrations that produce
lesson plan the sound in a self-designed instrument, show and explain
how to change the pitch and volume of a self-designed
instrument.

Overview: Children demonstrate the musical instruments

they designed and built. They explain what parts of their
instruments are vibrating to produce sound and then
demonstrate and explain how to change the pitch and
volume. The children also reflect on the design and building
process, describing the problems they encountered and
 evaluating how well their instruments meet the initial design
criteria.

***Students will do this twice during the day, once in the

morning for a Kindergarten class and once in the afternoon
for families and a celebration.

Materials: Student’s musical instruments. PARENTS

INVITED!
Thu, April 9

Fri, April 10