Sound and Communication

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Sound and Communication

Arts Integrated Lesson Plans and Materials for Teaching Sound and Communication & SABES Grade 1 “Calls of the Wild”

Jump to topic: Close Listening Learn a Song Write a Song Echo Foldable Animal Sounds Design Challenge

Close Listening

Arts Integrated Daily Routine

This activity introduces students to the concept that sound is created by vibrations in the air. Through a brief daily listening activity and class chant, students practice focused listening, identifying and describing the “music” of their environment while building sound awareness and vocabulary.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP4:Analyzing and Interpreting Data. PS3: Use observations to describe patterns and/or relationships in the natural and designed world in order to answer scientific questions and solve problems.
PS4.A: Wave Properties. PS1: Sound can make matter vibrate and vibrating matter can make sound.
CCC3:Scale, Proportion, and Quantity. PS1: Relative scales allow object and events to be compared and described (e.g. bigger and smaller, hotter and colder, faster and slower)

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

I:P-2:1: Describe how music can be a part of personal daily life experiences.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 1- Students will use observations from a listening activity to identify the source of a sound, and identify the sounds as loud or soft, and high or low pitch.
Unit Goal 2- Students will record observations to describe the effects of vibrations through different mediums and explain how the vibration of objects creates the sounds we hear.

TEACHER BACKGROUND

Teachers should have an understanding of what sounds are (vibrations) and where they can be found (everywhere).

STUDENT PREREQUISITES

Students should have some general knowledge of critical listening, writing, and/or drawing.

ACCESSIBILITY

While this activity is framed in terms of writing down the sounds they hear, students can draw what they hear instead. If neither option works for a student, a verbal response is acceptable as well.

ENGAGE

1. Begin by having students sit at their desks and take out their science journals (or scratch paper).

2. Tell them they will be challenged to listen carefully to their environment. The goal is to listen for as many sounds as they can and write them on their paper in one minute.

3. Remind them that they don’t want to hear each other during this time, but rather listen as far away from themselves as they can, including outside, down the hall, and across the street. These sounds are the music of our everyday lives.

EXPERIENCE

1. Start with the chant of:

“Sounds are vibrations in the air.”

Students repeat

“Let’s listen for them everywhere.”

Students repeat

2. Set a timer for one minute. In silence, students will listen carefully to all the sounds around them — both near and far — and write or draw what they believe to be the source of each sound.

- Encourage them to think of these sounds as the “music” of their classroom, noticing details such as voices from another room, cars outside, the hum of the air conditioner, or birds in the trees.

3. At the end of one minute, have the students put their pencils down and ask one student to share what they heard during that time. The student chosen can change each day until everyone has had a chance to share.

- As this ritual goes on, challenge the students to listen more closely to sounds they may not have heard before. Is it raining today? That’s a new sound. Is the garbage truck arriving? That could be a new sound, too.

Note: This activity is easily applied to the unit with key vocabulary and aligns with the Maryland Fine Arts Standards of being able to listen for and identify music and sounds in students’ own lives.

As you delve deeper into the unit, you can start to ask more questions like “Was that a high-pitched sound or a low-pitched sound?” or “Was that noise loud or soft?”

EXTEND

As an optional extension, you can ask your students to repeat this activity at home. These sounds will likely vary from the ones in their classroom and can prompt a rich conversation about the different sounds in their own communities.

ASSESS

Students’ science sound journal serves as the assessment portfolio that includes a log of what students have heard throughout the unit as well as information on the volume and pitch of those sounds, demonstrating mastery of key unit vocabulary.

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MITCH HARRIS – BRING MITCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

Mitch Harris is an educator, actor, and writer with more than 12 years of experience integrating the arts into core subject areas in K-12 schools throughout the country and around the world. As a member of the Inner City Teaching Corps in Chicago, the Program Director of the Paramount Story Wranglers in Austin, and most recently a Resident Teaching Artist Fellow with Arts Every Day in Baltimore, Mitch believes that students learn best when utilizing their bodies, voices, and imaginations to actively embody curricular content in a way that sticks long after leaving the classroom. To connect or learn more about his work, visit www.mitchharris.org.

GRACE SANTIAGO

Grace Santiago, born and raised in Baltimore, is a middle school science teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools. After graduating from Morgan State University with a BS in Biology with a chemistry minor, she began teaching 7th & 8th Grade Science at a middle school in West Baltimore in 2016. Finishing her 6th year of teaching, she has recently been awarded the status of Baltimore City Model Teacher and Science Department Chair at the Crossroads School. As a teacher in an Arts Everyday partner school, she has been utilizing Arts Integration in her classroom and incorporating Arts Integrated lessons and projects, like the States of Matter Improv Show and Marbled Molecules Art Exhibition, in her curriculum. Grace is currently pursuing a masters degree in Gifted and Creative Education at Towson University and spends her free time with her 5-year-old son, at the gym, or binge-watching YouTube. She is passionate about Science and Arts Integration!

Learn a Song

Pairs with SABES Lessons 2-5

In this activity, students use music and song to review and rehearse the core unit vocabulary/content, specifically: sound, vibration, pitch, volume, and echo.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP4:Analyzing and Interpreting Data. PS3: Use observations to describe patterns and/or relationships in the natural and designed world in order to answer scientific questions and solve problems.
PS4.A: Wave Properties. PS1: Sound can make matter vibrate and vibrating matter can make sound.
CCC3:Scale, Proportion, and Quantity. PS1: Relative scales allow object and events to be compared and described (e.g. bigger and smaller, hotter and colder, faster and slower)

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

I:P-2:2: Present a classroom version of personal musical ideas demonstrating artistic purpose.
I:P-2:2: Make appropriate performance choices according to context.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 1- Students will use observations from a listening activity to identify the source of a sound, and identify the sounds as loud or soft, and high or low pitch.
Unit Goal 2- Students will record observations to describe the effects of vibrations through different mediums and explain how the vibration of objects creates the sounds we hear.

MATERIALS

Printed handout of song lyrics or anchor chart with lyrics large enough for the entire class to see.

TEACHER BACKGROUND

Teachers should have an understanding of the basic unit understanding of sound, including that sound is produced through vibrations and the differences between high pitch and low pitch and high volume and low volume sounds. Teachers should also have a very, very basic understanding of how to manipulate their voice to create high and low pitch and high and low volume sounds.

STUDENT PREREQUISITES

Students should have some general knowledge of sound, pitch, volume, and echo.

ENGAGE

Option A

- Begin by playing the “Sound Song” video or audio for students.
- Explain to students that we will be using our voices to create sounds and different sound types through song.

Option B

- Ask students who their favorite singers are or to share their favorite songs. This could serve as an opportunity to explain to students that all of their favorite singers create different types of sounds with their voices and that we will be doing the same in our “Sound Song” activity.

EXPERIENCE

- If possible, have students arrange themselves into a “Singing Circle”.
- Students should be provided printed lyrics of the song, or lyrics should be posted in clear view of the singing circle.
- As a whole group, facilitate the singing of the “Sound Song.” Singing the song should be used not only as an opportunity to review unit vocabulary through recitation of the lyrics but also to practice creating and hearing different types of sounds.
  - Note: Verses reviewing volume may be sung at high volume or low volume, depending upon the lyrics of the verse. Verses reviewing pitch should be sung at a high or low pitch, and the final echo stanza performed as a call and response to imitate the production of an echo.

The sound song can be applied to any subsequent lessons and activities as a review of core unit content.

ASSESS

This activity does not serve as a summative assessment. However, it can be used as a (per)formative assessment of student knowledge and understanding of the unit concepts. As students perform the song, they demonstrate their understanding of volume, pitch, and echo.

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ROOT BRANCH MEDIA GROUP – BRING ROOT BRANCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

All video content made in partnership with Baltimore’s Root Branch Media Group.

MITCH HARRIS – BRING MITCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

GRACE SANTIAGO

Write a Song

Pairs with SABES Lesson 6: Vibrations

In this activity, students will be introduced to the very basics of writing and reading music, and will write and play their own musical “phrase”, incorporating pitch and volume.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP4:Analyzing and Interpreting Data. PS3: Use observations to describe patterns and/or relationships in the natural and designed world in order to answer scientific questions and solve problems.
PS4.A: Wave Properties. PS1: Sound can make matter vibrate and vibrating matter can make sound.
CCC3:Scale, Proportion, and Quantity. PS1: Relative scales allow object and events to be compared and described (e.g. bigger and smaller, hotter and colder, faster and slower)

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

I:P-2:3: Demonstrate artistic qualities in performing musical ideas.
I:P-2:4: Read and perform from iconic or standard notation.
E:P-2:1: With teacher guidance, select a piece of music to read and perform, considering creative intent.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 1- Students will use observations from a listening activity to identify the source of a sound, and identify the sounds as loud or soft, and high or low pitch.

MATERIALS

My Sound Song handout printed for each student
Something for students to play their musical phrase with, this could be as simple as using their hands to clap or as advanced as a simple instrument to play with. Some suggestions are:
- No materials- students will use their hands to clap their music
- No materials- students can sing or hum their music
- Bucket (or other simple material) drum and drumsticks
- Boomwhackers
- Recorders
- Kazoos
- Triangles

TEACHER BACKGROUND

Teachers should have an understanding of sound and sound types, including high and low pitch and high and low volume.
Teachers should also have a very basic requisite knowledge of musical notes, limited only to quarter notes, half notes, rest notes, and dynamics.

STUDENT PREREQUISITES

Students should have some general knowledge of sounds, volume (high and low), and pitch (high and low).

ENGAGE

Explain to students that they will be writing their own simple “Sound Song” using musical notes, and will be able to “play” their song using a simple version of an instrument.

For increased engagement, you could play music of your choosing while displaying the written music for the song and explaining to students that musicians read this music to play the notes that make up the music we hear.

EXPERIENCE

1. Use the “My Sound Song” slides to teach students the basics of musical notes, using the tried and true classroom attention grabber of echoed clapping.

2. Tell your students to “clap after me” while displaying the simple 4-beat music.

3. Once students are comfortable with and have practiced several examples of clapping the 4-beat lines, teach students the symbols and lengths of the eighth note, the quarter note, and the quarter rest note.

4. Then, have the class proceed through the subsequent examples, clapping the 4-beat samples by reading the musical notes. At this juncture, students should also practice playing at different combinations of high volume, low volume, and high pitch, low pitch. If any alternate suggested materials are available (like boomwhackers, bucket drums, triangles, etc.), allow students to use these in place of simple clapping.

5. Following the lesson and practice, students will be released to apply their learning to write their very own “Sound Song” on the provided “My Sound Song” printable. Students should be provided the opportunity to practice and play their sound songs.

ASSESS

The content learned in this lesson will also be applied at the end of the unit’s Engineering Design Challenge Extension, in which students will write another “Sound Song” and use their echolocation device to play their song.

The Echolocation Instrument Rubric is included in these materials.

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ROOT BRANCH MEDIA GROUP – BRING ROOT BRANCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

All video content made in partnership with Baltimore’s Root Branch Media Group.

MITCH HARRIS – BRING MITCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

GRACE SANTIAGO

Echo Foldable

Pairs with SABES Lesson 9

In this activity, students will utilize visual arts to create an art piece that models the behavior of sound waves during echolocation.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP2: Developing & Using Models. PS4: Develop a simple model based on evidence to represent a proposed object or tool.
PS4.A: Wave Properties. PS1: Sound can make matter vibrate and vibrating matter can make sound.
CCC2: Cause and Effect. PS1 Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute student ideas about causes.

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

I:P-2:2: Experiment with design elements/principles such as; colors, line, and shapes.
I:P-2:1: Act on creative ideas to create images and forms from observation, memory, imagination, and feelings.
E:P-2:2: Evaluate works demonstrating content-specific literacy.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 2 – Students will record observations to describe the effects of vibrations through different mediums and explain how the vibration of objects creates the sounds we hear.

MATERIALS

Construction paper or cardstock paper
Paint (acrylic or tempera)
Paintbrush
Coloring utensils (crayons, colored pencils, or markers)

PHYSICAL SPACE CONSIDERATIONS

The physical space has the potential to strongly amplify student learning and understanding in this lesson. If possible, a physical space in which echoes can be easily produced should be utilized for the engage portion of this activity. A suitable area for this could be an empty gymnasium or auditorium (preferably with wood flooring), or an outdoor courtyard with surrounding walls. This will give students the opportunity to physically experience the production of echoes as engagement and connection to the content and activity of this lesson.
As liquid paint will be used for this activity, practical considerations for the physical space should be used. Decide on a space and arrangement that allows students ample space to create their pieces and the opportunity to get a little messy without damaging class materials or spaces.

ENGAGE

1. Start the lesson by facilitating a discussion of a time a student has heard an echo.

2. Allow students to share with the class their examples of echoes they have heard/experienced.

3. If possible, take students to a location where echoes can be created, like an enclosed courtyard, gym, etc, and have students create and listen to their own echoes.

4. If none of these options apply or students have had little experience with echos, a video online exhibiting echos can be used to begin this activity.

EXPERIENCE

Students will choose an example of a situation in which an echo would be produced and create an “Echo Foldable” art piece.

1. Using a piece of construction paper or cardstock folded in half and a small amount of tempera paint, students will model the creation of an echo. On one side of the folded paper, students will paint the type of soundwave that would be produced in this situation (high volume, low volume, high pitch, low pitch) on the left side of their folded paper. They will then create their “echo” by folding the page over and pressing down, creating a mirrored image of their soundwave. See the video associated with this activity for modeling of the activity!

- Note: This is intended to visually model and reinforce the concept of an echo being a sound wave that travels away from the listener, bounces off of an object, and then returns to the listener.

2. Once their sound waves are dried, students may add to their pieces by drawing in the scene in which the sound wave and echo were created. For example, if a student is representing a child’s clap bouncing off of a wall, they would draw the student clapping on the left side of the paper at the beginning of their sound wave and the wall on the far right side of the paper behind the echo wave.

Formative Assessment: To assess student understanding using this activity, students may provide written or oral explanations of what their piece represents.

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ROOT BRANCH MEDIA GROUP – BRING ROOT BRANCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

All video content made in partnership with Baltimore’s Root Branch Media Group.

MITCH HARRIS – BRING MITCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

GRACE SANTIAGO

Animal Sound Acting

Pairs with SABES Lessons 10-12

In this activity, students will learn different and varied animal noises and what they mean. Once learning these basics, students will perform in their own scenes embodying the character of those animals and the noises they make, utilizing their own voices to recreate the pitch and volume of their animals to more fully understand the meaning of those animal noises.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP 8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. PS1: Read grade-appropriate texts and/or use media to obtain scientific and/or technical information to determine patterns in and/or evidence about the natural and designed worlds.
LS1.B Growth and Development of Organisms. PS1: Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive.
CCC 1: Patterns. PS1: Patterns in the natural and human-designed worlds can be observed, used to describe phenomena, and used as evidence.

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

E:P-2:3: Effectively justify and implement specific acting, vocal, and movement choices to create a convincing character.
E:P-2:1: Collaborate with others on a guided theatrical work.
E:P-2:2: Present a play/drama for an informal audience.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 3 – Students will obtain information about the different purposes of animal communication (mating, alarm, location, food, and singing).

TEACHER BACKGROUND

Teachers should have an understanding of basic theatrical terms like character (who the student is playing), line (the words that students say as actors), intention (the reason the actors are speaking), and cue (the line before theirs that prompts them to say their lines).

STUDENT PREREQUISITES

Students should have some general knowledge of theatrical terms like character (who they are acting as), line (what they say), intention (why they are saying it), and cue (when to say it), as well as the vocabulary lined out earlier in this unit like pitch and volume. An additional SEL component can be included in terms of emotion.

ENGAGE

Tell students that while we humans speak in words, animals “speak” through other noises to signify certain things.

We are going to learn some of the things animals say to each other, and then use those sayings to have an animal conversation in a short scene between animals.

Students will be playing the animals and their “lines” will correlate to real animal noises and what they signify in the wild.

EXPERIENCE

1. Students are broken into different animal groups (bears, birds, dogs, and mountain lions).

2. As part of the SABES lesson, students will learn the different noises that their animals make and the purpose for each (mating, alarm, location, and food). Then, they will learn what makes those sounds unique using vocabulary already established in this unit (volume, pitch, etc).

3. Use the Animal Sound Scenes Slides to provide students with their “lines.”. Based on the slides, students will determine the intention of the line and make the appropriate noise. For instance, if the line is “Where is my baby?” The intention is to find their offspring and the students will need to make that noise accordingly – matching pitch and volume.

4. Teachers can then ask the students questions to prompt their responses. For instance, you may ask the mountain lion group what noise they might make if they found food. They will use the table on the slides to find their line “roar”, and what pitch/volume/length to deliver that line.

- Teachers should encourage facial expressions and physical gestures to enhance these lines. A sound indicating aggression should have a facial expression to match.

Connections: Students embodying these different noises apply directly to the science standards for these lessons in understanding different purposes of animal communication (mating, alarm, location, food, and singing). It also ties to the Maryland Fine Arts Standards of creating a theatrical work and performing it for their class.

EXTEND

Prompt a scene that happens between two different species, i.e. a bird and a mountain lion working together to find food, or the teacher as a human asking the animal questions which they can answer in their animal noises.

ASSESS

By fully embodying animals and their noises, students will more deeply understand the different purposes of animal communication (mating, alarm, location, food, and singing). Observing students engaging in this activity will allow for a formative check for understanding.

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BRAIN TARGETED TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM

The Emotional Climate:

- Acting can be a scary thing for students and teachers alike. Remember that the goal is not winning an Oscar, but rather that students get to apply their newly found knowledge of pitch and volume to perform these roles.

The Physical Space:

- A “stage” is ideal for this activity. Even if it’s just a designated carpet, having a defined performance space helps students get into the spirit of the activity.

Accessibility Notes:

- Because this activity is nonverbal, it can be facilitated with all students of varying abilities. Students can respond with animal noises individually, or in groups if they have performance anxiety. There can even be an interesting cross-cultural connection to different languages if you have English language learners in your class.

ROOT BRANCH MEDIA GROUP – BRING ROOT BRANCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

All video content made in partnership with Baltimore’s Root Branch Media Group.

MITCH HARRIS – BRING MITCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

GRACE SANTIAGO

Engineering Design Challenge: Musical Echolocation

Pairs with SABES Lessons 22-26

In this extension to the Engineering Design Challenge (EDC), students will learn about and draw inspiration from musical instruments for the design of their echolocation devices. Additionally, they will incorporate the skill learned earlier in the unit of writing musical “phrases” to write and perform another musical phrase to be used in the testing of their device.

Printable Version

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

SEP 2: Developing & Using Models. PS4: Develop a simple model based on evidence to represent a proposed object or tool.
ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions. PS1: Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people.
ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution. PS1: Because there is always more than one possible solution to a problem, it is useful to compare and test designs.
CCC6: Structure and Function. PS1: The shape and stability of structures of natural and designed objects are related to their functions.

MARYLAND STATE ARTS STANDARDS

E:P-2:1: With teacher guidance, create musical ideas for classroom composition activities, using appropriate technology as available.

SABES LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Unit Goal 5 – Students will act as rehabilitation engineers to create a device (echolocator) that produces sound to help a person with vision challenges “see” the world around them.

MATERIALS

Rubber bands
Toy kazoos
Toy flutes/recorders etc.

STUDENT PREREQUISITES

Students should have some general knowledge of how sound moves and more importantly, how it bounces back to our ears in an echo.

ENGAGE

To get students excited about the project, it may be helpful to facilitate a fun, game-like warmup to introduce the EDC extension:

- An idea for this could be a “Mystery Musical Instrument Guessing Game.” This could be as simple as playing short audio clips of musical instruments and having students guess what instrument is being played.
- Whichever engagement/warmup you decide should lead into you explaining that students will be designing their echolocation devices using inspiration from a specific family of musical instruments.

EXPERIENCE

1. Use the slides (included here) to review the engineering design challenge and to introduce students to the added element for the arts-integrated extension of the project: Use a family of musical instruments as inspiration to design a device that produces a sound to help a person with vision challenges “see” the world around them.

2. Next, use the slides to introduce students to the 4 instrument families from which they will draw inspiration for their device: String, Brass, Woodwind, Percussion.

3. Use the slides to show visual examples of the instrument family and to listen to the video clips of these intruments being played.

- Note: If you have access to real instruments from these families, or perhaps a student, colleague, friend, etc. who plays any of these instruments, this could be a fantastic way to deepen the engagement and integration of the music into the project.

APPLY

Students will perform the Engineering Design Challenge, as outlined in the SABES curriculum unit, but with the added challenge of choosing an instrument family as the inspiration for their device.

- By no means should students be expected to exactly recreate an existing instrument, but rather should use components of an instrument family and its production of sound to inspire the overall design and function of their device.

Once their device is built, students will apply their learning from the “My Sound Song” music writing activity to write another short musical “phrase”.

- The musical phrase they write should include a change in pitch or volume to align with the SABES design challenge criteria.
- Students will play the musical phrase they write with their echolocation device during the assessment phase of the project.

ASSESS

Use the rubric for the Engineering Design Challenge extension (included here) to assess the final project.

- Note: This rubric is aligned to the existing SABES rubric with the inclusion of the extension project’s criteria.
- This document also provides space for students to:
  - Draw their prototype
  - Write their musical phrase

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BRAIN TARGETED TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM

The Emotional Climate:

- The EDC should be a celebration and culmination of the unit. Approaching with this spirit is crucial for student engagement.

The Physical Space:

- Echolocation works best in an open space capable of echo. If possible, this activity should be done outdoors near a wall or in the gym so sound has the space to bounce back.

ROOT BRANCH MEDIA GROUP – BRING ROOT BRANCH TO YOUR SCHOOL!

All video content made in partnership with Baltimore’s Root Branch Media Group.