Materials
- bowl
- aluminum foil
- rubber band
- uncooked rice
- pan lid
- spoon
What to do
1. Explain to the children that every noise they hear is made by something moving backwards and forwards very quickly and that it is called "vibration." Explain that sound travels in waves, which cannot be seen.
2. Tell the children that you are going to demonstrate how sound travels.
3. Make a drum by covering an empty bowl with foil and fastening a rubber band around it, so the foil is tight.
4. Put some uncooked grains of rice on the top of the "drum."
5. Tell the children to watch the rice carefully. Next to the drum, bang a pan lid with a spoon.
6. The sound waves from the pan lid will make the rice on the drum bounce into the air.
7. Another way to show sound waves is to ask the children to put an ear on the table, put a metal pan on the other end, and bang it. They will feel the vibration through the solid wood.
More to do
- Music: Celebrate sound by singing noisy "sound songs," such as "Old MacDonald" and "Wheels on the Bus."
- Nature: Play a tape of whales singing and explain that sound travels faster and further through water and that whales can hear each other from 50 miles away.
- Science: Explain that thunder and lightning always happen at the same time, but we see the lightning before we hear the thunder because sound travels more slowly than light.
- More Science:With older children who understand the concepts, tell them that sound waves travel through liquids, solids, and gases. Have them do experiments to hear sounds through all these.
-Anne Adeney, Plymouth, United Kingdom
