Inquiring About Music: The Investigation

After a nice Spring Break, we gathered to continue our Music Inquiry. The kids continued to explore creating sounds in different ways. We loved how they would bring us random objects from both inside and outside to show us how hey could create sounds, such as rubbing a stick through a handful of grass or striking a stick against a log and other surfaces, noticing that different surfaces created different sounds. Some also used their artistic talents to create instruments using paper!

They loved how they could feel the vibrations when striking the chimes, reinforcing the fact that sound is caused by vibrations. 

The children choose a way to make sound to become an expert in. Each group organized information by creating a circle chart to show different instruments that create sound in the way they were exploring. I forgot to take photos of the finished charts. I will try to add them to this post on Monday. 

Each expert group chose what instrument their group would make. The shaking experts decided to create rain sticks to show that you can create sounds by shaking.

The striking experts wanted to create cymbals to show that you can make sound by striking. 

The blowing experts created harmonicas to show that you can make sounds by blowing.  They had to measure he straws to create different lengths to show different pitches. 

The strumming/plucking experts are still working on creating guitars to show that you can strum and pluck to create sounds. They used different sized rubber bands to show the different pitches. We are in need of paper towel tubes for them to finish! If any of you parents have any, please send them in.

The rubbing experts will be creating their instruments on Monday.  They will glue sandpaper to blocks (and of coarse paint them so they are beautiful) to show that you can make sound by rubbing. They will have different grades of sandpaper to show different pitches. 

As a whole class, we created kazoos! They loved how they could feel the vibrations when when they used them!  We practiced creating different pitches with them. It took some strong finger muscles to work the rubber bands and thread ribbon through them to decorate them. 

We also created maracas by taping 2 spoons around a plastic egg filled with rice, beans, or sand. Each created a different pitch. We had kids model a rythym with them and we all echoed their rhythms. 

Now that they have investigated, the next steps are for each group to present to the rest of the class about their way of creating sound. We then need to take the information they have learned through exploring and investigating and work on answering our driving question: How can we create an area for kids at our school to explore sound? That journey will be shown in next weeks post. 

Meanwhile, here are a couple other things going on in our class!

In Writer's Workshop, we are discovering that we are all amazing poets! They are being exposed to all kinds of poetry and working on their own poetry treasuries. When we are done, you parents will be invited to a poetry tea so we can share our amazing poems with you!

I found these beautiful flowers and couldn't resist sharing their beauty with the class. They are displayed for them to take a closer look and paint. 

One of our friends brought in a nest with egg shells in it! We set it out for the kids to explore and built this provacation around it to invite further exploration for those who are interested.

Mrs. Garrabrant brought us grocery bags to decorate for Kroger for earth day.  They will use these bags for their customers groceries!

I found some girls trying to plant some dead trimmings from our butterfly bush in our garden plot.  

I then knew it was time to dig out our gardening tools!  The kids were very excited! They weeded, took out the sticks and turned the soil for us. 

I noticed that we need more soil so I will be looking for resources that could help us get some!  They are very interested in planting something, but we haven't decided what yet.  Stay tuned to see what will happen next!