Sound Lesson Plan: Vibrations Make Sound!

Grade Level: 1st Grade

Group Size: Small Groups of 4 Students, Rotating Stations

Subject: Science

Nevada Academic Content Standards:

§ Science – 1-PS4-1: Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating
materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
§ Science – PS4-A: Wave Properties: Sound can make matter vibrate, and vibrating
matter can make sound. (1-PS4-1)

Objectives:

§ The student will be able to make and experiment with different homemade instruments
that will demonstrate sound caused by vibrations of matter.
§ The student will be able to show with their body how sound waves move.
§ The student will be able to examine how sound can make matter vibrate.
§ The student will be able to tell what they learned and what their favorite sound activity
was by writing three or more sentences.

Materials:

Plastic Cups, 28 with small holes poked in the bottom large enough for yarn
Yarn, 28 pieces precut, small tied loop on one end of each piece in case students cannot tie a knot
Baby Wipes, at least 28
Small metal paper clips, 28
Small fans, 2
CD player
CD with recorded sounds
Wind Chime
Hard objects 28, with hole in center to put rubber bands around (soup cans, plastic containers)
Rubber Bands, 150 different sizes and widths
Bowl
Plastic Cling Wrap, 1 box
Rice, 35 bags with an 1/8 of cup in each bag
Tuning Fork
Rubber Hammer (small)
Paper towel empty rolls, 28
Paper squares, 70 4-inch squares with multiple slits on edges to fold down on paper towel tube
Tape
Glue Sticks
Rubber bands, 100 small, all the same width
Worksheet
Lined paper for writing assignment
63 Straws with flaps cut at one end, flaps will make a triangle shape
Cups, 4 to hold straws with numbers 1-4 on each cup, 4 different lengths of straws
Numbers, 1-4 taped to bottom of four chairs
Video, What is Sound? Daily Motion Peek A Boo, The Dr. Binco’s Show on phone or computer
Smart Board
Hair bands, 20

Procedure:

1. Introduce: Blow whistle to have the kids line up from recess. Once lined up ask the
kids to think about how they think the whistle made the noise. Tell them you are going to
blow the whistle one more time and to pay attention and think about it. Tell them not to
answer out loud and to just think about it while we return to our seats in the classroom.
Once everyone is ready, explain to the students that there is a ball inside of the whistle.
When you blow into the whistle that ball moves back and forth causing molecules to
vibrate and those vibrations of molecules are what cause sound. Tell the students to put
their fingers across their throat. After all are ready tell the students to repeat after you and
have them say, “Vibrations make sound,” thee times in a row. Ask if they felt something
funny on their fingers when speaking. Explain that they were feeling the vibrations from
their vocal chords moving while working with air. Tell them they will do it one more
time to feel it on their fingers and have them repeat, “Vibrations make sound.”

2. Show: Tell the students that we will now watch a video about sound. Show the video
that is saved on the computer and display video the video on the smart board. Show the
short video, What is Sound? Daily Motion Peek A Boo, The Dr. Binco’s Show. Stop the
video at 1:29.

3. Ask: Ask the students if they liked the video and to respond by clapping if they liked
it. Explain that the noise made by clapping is molecules vibrating from their two hands
hitting each other. Ask the students if they think that the sounds in the video were made
by vibrating molecules and to click their tongues if they think yes. Explain that the
tongue moving up and down from the roof of their mouths are vibrating molecules. Let
them know that molecules are too tiny to be seen with our eyes but they can picture
molecules like tiny little round balls. Show them on the white board that molecules are
way smaller than a tiny marker dot.

4. Tell: Tell the students that we will now divide into groups of four students each to
rotate centers to learn more about how sound is made. Before dividing the students give a
quick demonstration on what they will do at each station. Remind them to listen closely
because if they do not listen they will not know what to do and then will have questions
and those questions may cause them to run out of time to complete the fun activities. Let
them know if they have forgotten what to do at the station to quietly raise their hands and
wait for me to come help. Let them know that when they hear the first whistle it means
everyone stops, cleans up, and gets ready to move to the next station. Each group of 4
that cleans up their station will earn a group dojo point. At the end of the stations each
group that earned all 7-group dojo points will receive a snack when we return to our
seats. On the second whistle everyone moves to the next station while we chant, “Sound
is made by vibrations, sound is made by vibrations, sound is made by vibrations.” Let the
students know that after rotating through all 7 stations they will then return to their seats
for a writing assignment.

5. Activities and Stations:

§ Duck in a Cup: Students will take the precut string and tie the paper clip to the
string with a knot. If a student cannot tie a knot, let them know that there is a loop
on one end of the string and to find the opening of the paper clip and to guide the
loop along the paperclip until it reaches the center. They will then feed the string
through the hole of the cup with the paper clip hitting the outside top of the cup.
Next, they will take one wet wipe and drag the wipe down the string from top to
bottom with quick jerking motions. The motion needs to be quick jerking motions
and not one long pull or it will not work. When done correctly, it will sound like a
quacking duck.
§ Musical Straws: Students will look under their seat to see what number they
have. They will then select a straw out of the cup that has the same number as
under their chair. Each student will take a turn blowing hard into their straw to see
what noise it makes. After each student has had a turn they will have fun by trying
to make up a song as a group or try to figure out how to play Mary Had A Little
Lamb as a group.
§ Fans & Instruments: Students can take turns playing with the two guitars, the
wind chimes, and the ukulele. After each student has a turn on the instruments any
student with long hair needs to use the provided hair bands to tie their hair back
behind their shoulders. The four students will pair off and take turns asking each
other questions and answering them while talking into the fan. Questions should
be about sounds. Examples, What is your favorite animal sound? What is your
least favorite sound? What sounds did you hear on your way to school today?
Students need to throw away their hair bands after or can take them home.
§ Body Waves: Students will stand next to each other in a straight line. One student
who is on the end will hit play on the CD player. The CD has sounds and when
the sound starts the students will sway back and forth to the sound demonstrating
a sound wave with their bodies. When the noise if finished the students will stop
swaying. Some sounds are longer and slower while some are fast and short.
Students can hold hands to stay in line or just stand shoulder to shoulder.
§ Guitar Making: Students will select an object of their choosing our of the box
(soup can, plastic container, etc.) They will each take a Ziploc plastic bag that has
4 assorted rubber bands already in each bag. Each rubber band is a different size
and width. Students will then wrap their rubber bands around their container in
 any order that they like. Once they are finished they can pluck the rubber bands to
hear the sounds and differences each rubber band makes.
§ Popping Rice: In this station there will be a bowl covered with plastic cling wrap.
On top of the plastic wrap will be 1/8cup of rice. Each student in the group will
take a turn holding the tuning fork, hitting the tuning fork with the rubber
hammer, and then touching the fork to the plastic wrap. The rice will pop up a
little when the fork hits the plastic. Each student will take a turn and keep rotating
turns until time to move to next station.
§ Rainsticks: Each student will take an empty paper towel roll. On one end of the
paper towel roll they will take a precut square and attach it to the bottom of the
tube with tape or glue. Next they will take the precut tin foil and wrap it around
their paper towel tube in a spiral motion. After the tin foil is in a spiral motion
they will take it off the tube and insert it inside the paper towel roll. After that
they will each take a baggie of rice and dump it into their paper towel roll.
Finally, they will take another precut square and attach it to the top of the roll
with tape or glue. Once the two ends are secure with their paper squares they can
tip the roll upside down to hear the rice run down making a rain noise.

6. Seat Work: After returning to seats see which groups earned 7 dojo points to earn a
snack. Those groups that earned the snack will then get to pick a bag of chips to eat
while I discuss the writing assignment. Remind the students that the crunching sound
they hear while eating the chips are the vibrating molecules as they chew. Students
will write a short paragraph, at least three sentences, about what they learned today
about sound and what their favorite sound activity was. Let the students know that
more than three sentences is also okay but it must have at least three sentences. Write
the word Molecule and Vibration on the board for the students to refer to while
writing.

Assessment:

§ Stations: Students will be assessed on stations by their participation in each station. One
dojo reward point will be given to each student actively engaged at each station. Students
can earn up to 7 dojo points for the entire assignment. A dojo point will be subtracted
from students who are not staying on task, disrupting other students, or damaging
materials.
§ Seat Work: Students will be assessed on their writing assignment by having at least three
sentences in their paragraph. Each sentence needs to begin with a capital letter and end
with punctuation. One sentence needs to state what they learned and one sentence needs
to state what their favorite activity was. More than three sentences are encouraged. One
point given for each sentence, 3 points possible. Two sentences will be assessed for
punctuation and capitalization, one half point for each. One point will be given if the
student states what they learned. One point will be given if the student states what their
favorite station was. Seven points possible for this writing assignment.