3 Ways to Explore the Sense of Hearing

The Sense of Hearing

I can't believe it has been weeks since I shared how we explored the five senses.  Well...I shared four of the senses.  I got caught up with sharing other ideas and almost forgot to come back to the sense of hearing!  Well here it is, and I hope it was worth the wait.

1.  We made a water xylophone.  We have done this before, and in the past we have added color and even glow sticks.  This time I purposefully used plain water.  I intended to isolate the sense of hearing.  I set five vases in front of JZ (5) and J-Bug (3).  JZ filled each one with water.  I instructed him to fill them at varying levels.

Then we experimented with tapping on each vase to listen for the different sounds produced.  

The boys took turns to really hear the different sounds.

Finally we lined them up in order by water level and played our water xylophone.

2.  I don't have photos of the second activity we did.  It was too hard to capture on film.  I blindfolded the boys then made various noises around the house and had them guess what I was doing.  Examples included:

• opening and closing a drawer
• jingling my car keys
• filling a glass of water
• putting toys in the toy box
• zippering a coat
• separating velcro
• bouncing a ball

This activity was my favorite.  My boys really had to listen closely.  They are typical, active young boys.  Sitting still and listening isn't their strong suit.  It was a fun way to help them learn the importance of listening.

3.  Using plastic eggs leftover from Easter we played a sound match game.

I filled two eggs with each material and closed them.  Tip:  seal with a piece of tape to avoid accidents.  The boys shook the eggs and paired them by sound.  After matching each pair they guessed the contents of the eggs.

The eggs contained:

• water beads
• dried black beans
• rice
• coins
• marbles
• corn

Here are the other ways we've explored the five senses:  Sight, Touch, Taste, and Smell.

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