Elliot: "Do you hear that sound?"

There are different ways of knowing that it is Fall; either you know because of the date in the calendar or because you heard it on the radio.
Today, we were reminded of that through a child's discovery.

The four groups gathered together today to go on a walk in the forest. When we reached the meadow, Kathryn gathered the children and talked about the different sounds we hear in the forest.
On our way back, some children were running, while others were strolling along.
The group in the back was quiet, walking slowly towards the school. 

Halfway there, Elliot asked me a question:




Elliot: "Anamaria, did you hear that?"
Anamaria: "The children running and laughing?"
Elliot: "No. Listen carefully."
Anamaria: "The birds chirping?"
Elliot: "No, me. I'm stepping on these leaves. Listen to the sound it makes. Crunch, crunch, crunch..."






With a big smile on his face, Elliot ran back and forth through the blanket of leaves that was covering the path.

Today, I learned...I learned that Fall comes with a sound. A sound of crunching leaves!

Where is the sound coming from?

How do we hear Sound?

To provoke a reaction to this question, we played a game. The children's task was to identify which direction the sound is coming from while blindfold.









The children enjoyed this games and some were very brave, enough to hear and walk towards the sound right away, while others were hesitant and took more time to start moving their bodies around the room.









We discussed the importance of hearing as well as seeing. We connect the sounds that we hear to what we see, but when there is no visual stimulus, we focus more on the sound and are still able to identify the source.





For the next little while, we will be focusing on different folk songs, breaking them down into studying their form and their context.

Sound Travels

During the formative week*, I jotted down the children's ideas about Sound. We focused on the central idea: How sounds are experienced, and most of the children's answers were "through our ears." 

In continuation of our discussions, we read the story "The listening walk" by Paul Showers and Keira suggested that we should do the same and go on a walk of our own. The children enjoyed listening to the different sounds in our forest and Serena stated that when she closes her eyes, she can hear the sounds better. 
All the other children tried Serena's suggestion and they all said that they could hear the birds in the forest and feel the wind on their faces. 
I could see it on their faces that some of them enjoyed listening to the different sounds with their eyes closed and Zoe mentioned that she can imagine the source of where the sound is coming from better with her eyes closed. The Wind group children are eager to explore this unit on Sound and I am very excited to be a part of their learning. 

This upcoming week, we will inquire more about how sound is experienced and the different sounds in our immediate environment.   


* Formative week - The new unit of inquiry is introduced to the children in the first week and the children are provided with opportunities to demonstrate their prior knowledge and current understanding. All the information gathered from the children will be used to guide and direct the next stage of teaching and learning.