Music Maker MUSIC MAKERS
Music Maker MUSIC MAKERS Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children thinking about how different sounds are made. Cosmic and Gem are having breakfast with Uncle Astro. Gem is tapping things with her spoon to make sounds. Cosmic notices that the tune sounds different after he has poured fruit juice out of the bottle and the mugs are filled with tea. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Think about why the bottle makes different sounds • Test different amounts of water in bottles and observe how they change the sound • Record their results and present them to the group. Kit list • Several identical glass bottles • Additional glass or pot containers of different sizes e.g. flower pots, mugs, cups, glasses or jars • Spoons, pencils or other tappers • Tubes with one end sealed and/or bottles with narrow necks to blow across e.g. milk or water bottles. Wine bottles work best, if you wish to use them. (optional) • Food colouring (optional) What to do MUSIC MAKERS 1. Follow the instructions on the ACTIVITY CARD. Make sure you give the children time to talk about their ideas. 2. Read the story. Get the children to talk to a buddy about the ideas in the questions and the opinions of Gem, Cosmic and Uncle Astro 3. They can start by exploring what happens when you change the amount of liquid in a bottle. The children will need several bottles all of the same size and should tap them gently with a spoon. 4. You could also give them other things to explore e.g. different sized glass bottles, jars, glasses, teapots, mugs or clay plant pots? 5. Encourage the children to work together with their buddy to put the sounds in order from low to high notes. 6.Can the children create a simple tune and share it with everyone else. 7.There are follow up activities for children who want to do more finding out.
Things to think about Whenever a sound is made, something vibrates. Sound can travel through air, solid or liquid. When you tap a bottle of water, the water vibrates. The more water in the bottle, the lower the note becomes. So we can create different notes (i.e. change the pitch), by changing the amount of water in a bottle. Another way of making a sound is to blow across the top of a narrow necked bottle or tube sealed at the bottom. The sound is made by air vibrating in the bottle. The more air in the bottle, the lower the note. So a nearly full bottle makes a low note when tapped and a high note when blown across. Cracked containers or objects touching each other do not produce clear notes. It is good for children to discover this themselves. If it is affecting their exploration then it is worth pointing it out to them. Take it further Other things will produce sound when tapped, blown or plucked. Different sized tubes, clay MUSIC flowerpots, MAKERS MUSIC cups, MAKERS mugs or glass containers can all MUSIC produce different notes. String, elastic bands or rulers of different lengths make different sounds when plucked. Keywords • Sound • Vibration • Music • Pitch Watch out! Care needs to be taken when using glass. Check your organisation’s policy for using glass. Clear up water spills and breakages quickly. Encourage children to tap gently. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236
