Materials
Tape recorder
Instructions
1. Gather the children for circle time.
2. Show them the recorder and explain what it does.
3. Record your voice and each child's voice and play the tape back for the children. Explainthat you are all going on a special walk and you'll take the tape recorder along. Say that ifthey are quiet, they will be able to record sounds.
4. Now take a walk through the building and outside, recording as you go, for example, amotor running on a vacuum, other children's voices, a pencil sharpener or pet animal noises.Outside you may hear birds, animals, traffic, etc. Encourage the children to make soundssuch as crunching leaves, throwing rocks in a puddle, hitting a live tree and a dead tree witha stick. Listen to the different sounds.
5. Return to the classroom and play back the sounds. The children may be able to pick uprecorded sounds they hadn't noticed on the walk, such as a plane flying over, a car horn orthe distant bark of a dog.More to doLanguage: Leave the tape recorder on while the childrenare working or playing. Play it back at circle timeand talk about how they spoke to each other.Congratulate children who spoke nicely to others. If you hear situations on thetape in which children could have spoken in a kinder manner to others, talk about it. Listen toyourself as you interact with the children. How or what could you have said or done differently?More science: You might leave the tape recorder in the science corner with a blank tape, andlet the children experiment making and recording sounds.
