Science at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 1)

Introduce unit by a 'listening walk' starting in the classroom and then going into other areas of the school and playground. Ask children to keep very quiet during the activity and when they return to the classroom to talk about the sounds heard.

• Carry out a 'sound quiz' by asking children to listen to a tape containing familiar sounds eg a car engine, birds singing, children singing, a piano playing, footsteps, a tap running and to identify what they are. Record different children in the class speaking and ask children to identify who they are.

• Present children with a range of musical instruments eg percussion, recorders, and other objects eg rattles, spoons, cardboard, and ask children to explore how these make sounds and to group them eg into those you shake, pluck, bang, blow. Help children to represent their groups eg in a chart or by labelling groups and ask them to compare the groups and suggest what this shows.

• Ask children to explore the sounds made by the musical instruments and other objects and to suggest ways of describing them eg high, low, loud, quiet, rattling, ringing. Ask children to identify sounds they like and sounds they dislike and to describe them. Extend by asking children to use secondary sources eg CD-ROM, video clips, simple reference books to find out about other musical instruments and how they make sounds.

• Ask children how they themselves can make sounds eg by talking, whistling, clapping. Ask them to feel their faces and throats while they are talking/singing and while they are not.

• Ask children to draw a picture or describe how they think we hear. Carry out a number of short activities eg ask them to point to where a sound is coming from; using ear muffs over both or one ear see if children can hear as well as with both ears which will test their ideas. Encourage them to raise questions during the activities eg What will happen if we use earmuffs? What happens if we only cover one ear? Discuss with children what they have found out and help them to record this using drawings and writing.

• Show children a video or video clip about traffic or road safety and ask them to suggest ways in which hearing is important for safety.

• Ask children which sounds they can hear from far away eg thunder, ambulance/police sirens, shouting and whether they are louder if they are nearer. Ask children to describe what it is like to be near a very loud sound eg fire alarm, police siren.

• Ask children to think about how far away they can hear sounds eg in the hall, can they hear someone talking at the other end? Can they hear someone talking at the other end of the playground? Take children into a hall (or playground on a still day) and explore with them whether they can hear a quiet sound eg a buzzer at one end from the other. Explore a number of alternative ways of finding out eg moving towards, away from the sound, using different sources of sound, placing the sound source at one end, one side, in the middle of the hall. Agree a way of finding out with the children. Use the method with one source and ask children to measure how far they were from the source. Repeat using a quieter sound source and record measurements.

• Show children the measurements they have made and talk about how they could be presented to show clearly what happened. Help children to present results as a chart eg block diagram. Ask children to compare the results asking questions eg Was everyone the same distance from the sound when they stopped hearing it? Why not? Did the louder sound travel further? How do you know?