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Making Outdoor Sounds

What kinds of sounds can you make outdoors?

Print Activity

Materials

ruler, paint stirrer, or other stick for each child
audio recorder
clipboard and pencil

Key Science Concepts

Different objects make different sounds.
Sounds can vary in volume (loud and soft) and pitch (high and low).
Sounds have a source—a sound can be tracked to its source.

Vocabulary

Encourage children to use key terms such as louder and softer; descriptive words such as scraping, scratching, bumping, banging, ringing; and science process words such as compare, notice, observe, and record.

Directions

Ask, What sounds can you make on outdoor surfaces?

Offer children a stick, a ruler, or a paint stirrer to tap on or drag along different surfaces, such as:
- bumpy brick and blacktop surfaces
- fence railings
- slatted benches
- the different poles and surfaces of the slide and other playground equipment

Share discoveries. Encourage children to imitate or describe the sounds they make.
Use the audio recorder to record some of the sounds they make. Jot down things the children say and do.

Reflect and Share

Invite children to talk about their sound-making experiences outdoors. Use your notes to share examples of what various children said and did. Play your audio recordings and see if children can recall and identify the sounds you recorded. Children may also wish to draw some of the objects they made noise with. Ask:

Everyone used a stick to tap on something. What were the different things you tapped on?
What were some of the loudest sounds you were able to make? How did you make those sounds?
Can you (hit, bang, tap) the same thing in a different way to make the sound softer? How would you do that?

Related Video

Back to Stand-Alone Activities

Listening to Sounds

Stand Alone
Indoor
20 - 30 minutes

Teaching Insights

I wanted to take some materials outside with us to explore making sounds, so I asked the kids for their recommendations.

“We can take a plastic box to make a sound like boom, boom,” said Kohl.

“We can use a ball to make sound,” said Jeron.

“We can use paper like this,” Jai’lysa pretended to wave a sheet of paper in the air.

“And the wind can play with the paper and see if it makes sound.”

“Maybe the water table,” suggested Jordan. “When you splash, it makes a sound.”

“When my little brother was washing his hands, it made a big sound,” said Elyssa.

“Soap doesn’t make a sound,” objected Kohl.

“But if you wash it off, it makes a bubbling sound,” Terell said.

“Those are all great ideas,” I said, writing them down. “When we go out this afternoon, we will take a plastic box, a ball, some paper, and the water table and some soap. And

we’ll see what sort of sounds we can make.”

—Jazmine, preschool teacher

© 2024 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Peep and the Big Wide World and the Peep characters and related indicia are trademarks of WGBH Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Used with permission. “Peep,” “Quack,” “Chirp,” “Tom” and “Nellie” were originally created by Kai Pindal for the National Film Board of Canada productions The Peep Show, © National Film Board of Canada, 1962, and Peep and the Big Wide World, © National Film Board of Canada, 1988. Peep and the Big Wide World ® is produced by WGBH and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario. Major funding for Peep and the Big Wide World is provided by the National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1222607. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.