Dori Pinders

Jonathan Tharpe

 

Sounds of the Rainforest

 

I. Grade 2

 

Developmental Information

This lesson can be used when doing a unit on the rainforest or for earth day.  The lesson is designed for primary elementary school students when studying sound.  Students should be able to ask concrete, comprehension, and application type questions to the teacher.  This lesson will also advance student’s thinking, and questions towards the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

 

Purpose

The students will understand sound application to animals, musical instruments and communication through hands on manipulative and experiments (the bottles and straws).  Also students will collect and record data by using a ruler and recording their findings on a data sheet.  Students will grasp a firm understanding of the idea of pitch, by understanding that the amount of air in a tube or bottle directly relates to the pitch by making it either a high or low sound.

 

 

II.  Standard Course of Study Correlation

 

Science grade 2:

 

Competency Goal 4: The learner will build an understanding of the concepts of sound.

 

Objectives:

4.01:  Discover how sounds are made by using a variety of instruments and “sound makers”.

                      

 4.02:  Discover that sound is produced by vibrating objects.

 

Math Curriculum Correlation grade 2

 

COMPETENCY GOAL 1:  The learner will read, write, model, and compute with whole numbers through 999.

 

Objectives:

1.01:        Develop number sense for whole numbers through 999.

Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.

Read and write numbers.

Compare and order.

Rename.

Estimate.

Use a variety of models to build understanding of place value (ones, tens, hundreds).

 

 

COMPETENCY GOAL 2:  The learner will recognize and use standard units of metric and customary measurement.

 

Objectives:

2.01:        Estimate and measure using appropriate units.

Length (meters, centimeters, feet, inches, yards).

Temperature (Fahrenheit).

 

 

III. Background Information

 

Bottles

If you blow across the top of an empty soda bottle it makes a fairly low-pitched tone. If you add a little liquid and then blow, the pitch is higher; the more liquid the higher the pitch. But if you tap the sides of the same bottles you get the opposite effect: the empty bottle has the highest pitch, the fuller bottle a lower pitch. It seems odd, doesn't it?

When you blow across the top of an open bottle the air inside it vibrates, producing sound waves we can hear. When we blow across an empty bottle there is more space for the air to vibrate in, so the air vibrates more slowly. We hear a lower pitch. As we add water there is less space in the bottle for the air to vibrate, so the air vibrates faster. Now we hear a higher pitch.

Squawking Straws

 

The squawkers make sound by producing vibration. The vibration is caused by moving air. Moving air causes the pointed ends of the straw to move rapidly back and forth. Woodwind instruments, such as clarinets, use a reed that vibrates in a manner similar to the pointed end of the straw squawker.  The kazoo-like sound that is created by the straw squawker is, in part, determined by the length of the straw. As the length of the straw becomes shorter, the pitch of the sound produced will become higher. This is because the air in the shorter straw naturally resonates at a higher frequency. Sound waves with a higher frequency result in sound with a higher pitch.

 

 

IV. Process Skills

• Observation (listening for sounds while reading the story, listening to the different sounds the bottles and straws make)
• Communicating Data (doing the data worksheet and discussing the relationship between the length of the straw and the sound heard)
• Experimenting (blowing the bottles, and straws to make the different pitches)
• Measuring (measuring the length of the straws using different units)
• Classifying (sorting the bottles sequentially based on their pitch)

 

 

 

V.  Materials

• Bottles for every student, filled at different water levels
• Precut straws for every student
• Rulers and data sheet for every student
• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

 

 

VI. Activity Description

 

Engagement and Demonstration

Have students come to the front of the room, and gather around in a circle.  Teacher will tell students that we are going to be learning about sounds today, and we are going to use our imagination as we read this story about the rainforest.  Tell them that we are going to be imitating two animals, the howling monkey and the squawking toucan.  Have students close their eyes, and begin to read the book The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. 

Teacher:  Read the first five pages of the book, and then ask the students what sounds they heard in the rainforest and do we hear?  examples (squawking birds, howling monkeys, the chopping of an axe, snakes hissing, bees buzzing, tree frog squeaking, jaguars growling).  Now finish reading to the part of the book that talks about him waking up “The man awoke…strangely silent”.

Teacher:  Tell the students that we have a problem the rainforest has fallen silent, and that it is our class’s job to find the animals’ voices.  Today we will create the sounds of the howling monkey, and the squawking toucans by using these bottles and these straws.

Conduct the two activities, and then come back together by reading the last few pages of the story.  Allow the monkeys and toucans to add in the howling and squawking to the story when prompted to do so.  Tell the students that the monkeys and toucans are delighted because their great kapok tree was not cut down so they decided to sing.

 

Exploration

 

Bottles:  Howling Monkeys

 

Have a bottle for every student in the class.  The bottles will be filled with various amounts of water to differentiate the pitch the bottle produces.

 

1. Hand out a bottle to every student or “monkey” and allow them to practice their howls for one to two minutes.

 

2. Say, “Ok monkeys stop monkeying around we have a job to do”.   Teacher will hand out all the bottles, filled with various amounts of water, to every student.  The students will be arranging themselves into a line of sequential order from lowest to highest “howl”, meaning pitch.  This is a way of assessing students’ ability to demonstrate sequential ordering by working together as a group.  Allow students to go from low to high and high to low a couple of times, so that they can hear the different sounds the bottles make.

 

3. Teacher will now discuss and ask why the bottles make different sounds.
   • Ask two students from opposite ends of the sequence to come up to the front and blow their bottles, one at a time.
   • Now ask students do these bottles sound the same, how are their sounds different, does one have a higher sound than the other, or lower sound than the other? (yes, one has a higher sound, yes one has a lower sound)
   • What do you notice about the bottles? (water is at different levels)
   • Why do you think the sounds are different, and why do you think this might be happening? (less water there is lower the pitch, more water there is higher the pitch)

   

4. Now that the monkeys have found their howls, lets put our bottles down and see if we can now help the birds find their squawks.

 

 

Straws:  Squawking Bird

 

Straws will be precut, in varying lengths, to save time, and for safety issues.  Hand every student a straw, ruler, and data sheet.  This activity will be done in two groups, half the class in each group.  This is to provide better one on one instruction.

 

1. Pass out the precut straws to the “toucans”.  Have the students flatten the last inch of one end of their straws. This is easily done with their teeth or a ruler. 

 

2. Tell them to blow through the straw to create a “squawking” sound.  Allow students to practice their squawking for a few minutes.  Ask the following questions.

 

• What part of the straw is vibrating?  (the tip of the straw)

 

• Ask one of the students in the group who has a short straw to blow.  Ask the group what they observe.  (the shorter the straw the higher the pitch)

 

• Ask a student with a longer straw to blow, and ask the group what they observe.  (longer the straw the lower the pitch)  Do you hear a difference, why do you think this is happening?

 

3. With their rulers have students measure the length of their straws and record their data on their data sheet.

 

4.   After both groups have completed their data sheet and discussed the squawkers with their group have students return to their seats.  The teacher will now demonstrate the pitch increasing by having a full length straw and blowing it, while cutting it down with a pair of scissors at the same time.  As the teacher cuts the straw the pitch will increase.

 

 

Explanation

 

Today we have heard sounds made by bottles and straws.  They have different sounds depending on the amount of water or length of straw.  We have a word that we use to describe the highness and lowness of sound.  This word is called pitch.  Teacher will now demonstrate a low pitch by blowing a bottle with little water and a high pitch by blowing a short straw to show the difference in the sounds.  Also see background information to provide explanation.

 

Expansion

 

The expansion for this activity will come from the Toucan data sheet.  On this data sheet students are asked to provide three different units of measurement; inches, centimeters, and millimeters.

 

Evaluation

 

Assessment will come from sequential ordering of “monkeys howls” and from the Toucan data sheet. 

 

 

VII. Curricular Integration

 

English Language Arts grade 2

 

Competency Goal 2:  The learner will develop and apply strategies and skills to comprehend text that is read, heard, and viewed.

 

Objective:  2.06 Recall facts and details from a text.

 

 

Competency Goal 3:  The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.

 

Objective:  3.04 Increase oral and written vocabulary by listening, discussing, and composing texts when responding to literature that is read and heard. (e.g., Read aloud by teacher, literature circles, interest groups, book clubs).

 

 

Competency Goal 4:  The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.

 

Objective:  4.04 Use oral communication to identify, organize, and analyze information.

 

VIII. Bibliography

 

Cherry, Lynne: The Great Kapok Tree.  Scholastic Inc, New York; 1990.

 

Frank, Marjorie Slavick, Robert M. Jones, Gerald H. Krockover, Mozell P. Lang, Joyce C. McLeod, Carol J. Velenta, Barry A. Van Deman. Harcourt Science, 2000. Harcourt, Inc. Orlando, FL

 

Science.  http://www.ced.appstate.edu/~goodmanj/4401/

 

 

Resources:

 

www.christiananswers.net/kids/sounds.html

This website allows teachers to have access to information on the rainforest including pictures and sounds of animals in the rainforest.

 

http://www.smv.org/pubs/PSSolutionsSquaker.pdf

The squawkers make sound by producing vibration. The vibration is caused by

moving air. Moving air causes the pointed ends of the straw to move rapidly back

and forth. Woodwind instruments, such as clarinets, use a reed that vibrates in a

manner similar to the pointed end of the straw squawker.

 

http://www.math.montana.edu/frankw/ccp/CBL/sound/experiments.htm

This website provides information on how the sound is produced when blowing in the bottles.

 

 

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