Sensorial Sound Boxes
Ages 2 ½ to 5 years
Sound is a sense that develops listening skills. Listening is
one of the building blocks for language development, reading and
comprehension. Sound is the foundation of music as well.
You can now purchase Sound boxes (cylinders) for a very good price here
Materials:
12 similar plastic bottles or small containers with a lid or a
cover. ( You can use strong, small, cardboard boxes with lids that can
be sealed with glue, old metal bandage boxes with the lids taped shut,
even yogurt containers with lids)
Contact paper if the bottles are clear
Six materials for the sounds, such as sand, large beans, small beans, small beads, coffee, small screws, salt, pepper, sugar
Make the sounds as easy to recognize from a soft sound to a loud
sound. Make the sound boxes more difficult after your child has
mastered the lesson.
How to make the sound boxes:
Fill two containers ¼ full of
same material. Cover well and seal with glue or tape since your child
will be shaking the container. Put the pairs in a box. You can make the
containers more attractive by covering them with contact paper. Place
containers in a larger box
Exercise 1:
Let your child have one of each of the pairs of
the boxes. Show your child how to shake a cylinder, holding it in one
hand, and listening to the noise it makes. Use 3 to begin with, the
soft, medium, and loud.
Exercise 2:
Using the 3 sound boxes from exercise one, add
other 3 that match (soft, medium, loud) Put them in a row of 3 boxes.
Ask your child to shake one of the boxes, and then put it in the middle
of the table. Have your child shake and listen to each of the other 3
boxes in the other row until he or she finds the one that matches. Show
how to put the matching pair together and continue with the next pair.
Add more boxes after your child has mastered the first 3 boxes.
Exercise 3:
Take one set of the sound boxes (they will all
have a different sound) and put it on your child’s table. Shake box in
turn and arrange them in order of sound from either loud to soft or
soft to loud.
Exercise 4:
Take the first three boxes from lesson 1 and put
it on your child’s table. Take the matching boxes and put them another
table on the other side of the room. Have your child shake one of the
boxes from his or her table. Ask them to leave the cylinder and find
the one that matches at the table across the room. Add more if your
child as your child becomes more proficient.
You can expand this lesson by listening to classical music with your child. Talk about the music when it is soft, or when it changes from loud to soft. You can even pick out instruments that are loud sounding verses ones that sound soft, and some that are in between soft and loud. For example, an violin sounds soft compared to the crashing sound of cymbals.