KIDS Sensory Play Resource Sheets Playing with Sound

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1 KIDS Sensory Play Resource Sheets Playing with Sound INTRODUCTION Take a moment to close your eyes and listen carefully to what is around you. You may be hearing a passing car, bird song, a radio, voices or the ticking of a clock. It will be unusual if there are no background noises. As adults we are able to filter the sounds around us and make sense of what is important, for instance if someone is talking to us we concentrate on that voice and subconsciously ignore other sounds such as music. This is a learnt skill, some children have difficulty in understanding what sound is most important at any one time, particularly children on the autism spectrum who may have sensory sensitivities and may be over or under stimulated by various senses including sounds. For more information on this refer to the e-learning module on autism. All children have their own individual preferences regardless of their particular impairment, however be aware that some children and young people do not like loud noises or particular pitches. Others may not tune in easily to quiet sounds and may hear the sound differently from you. If you are working with someone who has a hearing impairment, check out what kind of noises would be the easiest for them to hear, shaking a plastic box full of rice may not be appropriate, but change that for a metal tin full of buttons and the level and pitch of the noise changes. Sound encourages the use of motor skills, particularly with music and dance, drums and marching, songs and actions. Be aware of the child or young person you are working with, all activities offered should support the child to have choice and control in their own play and offer the opportunity to further their imagination and creative play. Let the child lead the play, your role is to encourage and enable. CONTENT OF RESOURCE SHEET 1. Making and using shakers 2. Using music in sensory play including action songs 3. Creating a sensory sound story sack 4. Playing outside with sound Making percussion instruments Can you remember as a child using an old saucepan as a drum, or two tin lids as a cymbal? The kitchen is a great place to start looking for the components to experiment with sounds. 1

2 The following are some ideas to start with, encourage the child to use their own imagination and also take a look at the Making Musical Instruments out of Scrap Resource Sheet in the Playing Indoors section of the resource pages on the web. Making Maracas and Shakers This is the simplest form of making a percussion instrument. Any type of container can be used that can be opened and resealed i.e. plastic bottles, lidded yogurt pots, tins, Pringles pots or even the inside cardboard of kitchen rolls that can be sealed with a piece of paper and elastic band. The list is truly endless. Consider the material that the pot or container is made from as it will vary the sound achieved even when using the same content. Also consider the size and shape of the container. Long thin containers will allow the content to travel and create the sound of the contents sliding as well as the fast sound of shaking. Experiment by using different pots and the same content. Ideas for what to put in the shaker include: Small stones and gravel Sand Pasta Rice Buttons Plastic chips (that you may get in packing) Paper clips Marbles Seeds, dried grass heads, berries (try shaking a dried poppy head, it makes a natural maraca!) Again the list is endless, encourage the child or young person to think of things for themselves. Games to develop: Matching sounds try using a range of pots that are non see-through, such as old film canisters or yoghurt pots with a lid. Fill pairs of pots with the same content, and make several pairs. Don t distinguish between the pots, but mix them up on a tray. Ask the child to shake each pot and create pairs where the sound is the same. Guessing the sound shake each pot separately, when the content has been guessed see if you are right by opening the pot, or place the pot on a picture of the contents as a matching game. Try making this more difficult by adding a little water to the pot (if waterproof) before shaking as the water will distort the sound of the content. Changing the sound try experimenting with the same content and the same pot, thinking about how can the sound be changed. Try shaking the pot in different ways, fast, slow, turning the pot over slowly, using the pot as a drum. 2

3 Expanding your activity Making a rain shaker For this you need to use a loose part for the content such as rice. Smaller grained rice works better. Rainmakers can be made in several different ways. The simplest form is to use a long cardboard tube with one end sealed, scrunch up several sheets of newspaper loosely and put them into the tube. Do not pack them down, you need the rice to slide between and through the paper. Add a handful or two of rice and seal the open end of the tube. By tipping the tube over, the rice will run from one end to the other but it will be hampered by the paper and so create a rain effect sound. Variants to this activity: for a different sound replace the newspaper with scrunched up silver foil, this will make more distinct sound. Rain makers that are manufactured to sell in shops use a series of nails embedded into a hollow tube, the rice is impaired on its journey by the nails and the shaker is often decorated by painting the nail heads bright colours and different patterns. To re-create this effect, still use a cardboard tube and push lots of split pins through the card into the tube. As the pins are bigger than nails you may wish to experiment with the loose parts creating the sound, small pasta shapes may work better than rice. Experiment and see! Making a shaker drum Sound resonates when objects hit a surface that can vibrate. Consider a drum, the skin of the drum bounces when hit by the drum stick. To create a shaker drum, replace the lid of the container with a balloon stretched across the opening. Cut the neck off the balloon, use the remaining body of the balloon, stretch it taunt and secure with an elastic band or tape. Some containers will not be suitable for this as the opening is too small or large. Heavy duty cardboard tubes such as poster tubes work well. Extensions to this activity use a cardboard tube or large cone, stretch and secure the balloon over one end. Speak into the other end and your voice will resonate and amplify creating a simple megaphone. Try using the tubes and pots for speaking and listening. Attach a piece of string between two yogurt pots, stand each side of the room and speak into a pot, the other person listens in their pot and your voice will travel magically down the string creating a simple telephone. Have you ever held a shell to your ear to hear the sea? Hold a small pot over your ear pressing tightly now listen carefully. The reality is that you can hear your own blood and pulse reflected through the pot but it sounds like the waves on a beach. Consider how you could incorporate other senses into this activity, try smelling the shakers can you tell the content from the smell? How the content feel in your hands before putting it into the pots? How could you decorate your shakers using bright colours and textures? Could you take things further and experiment by making shakers full of edible objects such as sugar cubes, sweets and pieces of fruit? Perhaps the reward for matching the sound of two shakers or guessing the content is to eat the content!!!! 3

4 Other ideas for making musical instruments appear in the resource pages on line. 2. Using music in sensory play Sounds, just like colours can effect how we feel. Bright red may represent a feeling of anger whereby greens and lilacs calm. The same applies to music, often used in sensory playrooms. Soft melodic music or the sounds of birdsong and running water create a peaceful feeling when the listener relaxes helped by sound. Loud fast paced music generates energy and activity such as running, jumping and dance. Consider how you can use music to provide a sensory play opportunity. In the Resource Sheet Playing with Touch we mentioned the use of gentle music when massaging a child or young person, again remember the individuals preferences. What you consider appropriate may be liked or disliked by the child in your care. Ideas for using music: Movement and Activity Children enjoy the ability to move, for some Disabled children this is more restricted than others if they have a physical impairment so consider how you are going to introduce these ideas to make them appropriate for individual requirements. Try marching or moving to music and always get the child or young person to join in and participate in the music itself as well as the actions. The Grand of Duke of York is a favourite marching tune with repetitive words. If the child cannot march then think about using hands to demonstrate the actions. Try encouraging the children to make up their own words to the same tune. Music can be introduced from a source such as CD, radio or TV, however, singing songs provides an invitation for the child or young person to join in (they wont mind if you are out of tune!) Many songs involve repetitive sounds such as: Old McDonald had a farm The animals went in two by two I swallowed a fly and I don t know why 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive ABCD (alphabet songs) Take a look on the internet and type in action songs for some more ideas. The following link provides you with lyrics, actions and the music! How can you add other sensory play into action songs and activities around music. Try creating masks that relate to the music for instance animal masks or use face paints (with permission) to enhance the experience. Play music whilst playing with water and bubbles to create a relaxing atmosphere. 4

5 3. Creating a sensory sound story sack Remember sound is not just about music and making noises, sound includes listening to voices. Communication is a two way process and for some children sound is just part of the process, where other forms of communication are used such as PECS, Makaton and Teacch. Consider how you can encourage sound as a sensory play activity in partnership with other communication systems. Many children enjoy being read to stories are opportunities to loose yourself in another world and having the skills to read a story well is an art form in itself. This section looks at how stories can come to life and become participative through sound. We will start with a story that everyone is familiar with, The 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf, where the pigs build houses out of different materials and the wolf tries to come and blow the pigs houses down. If you are unfamiliar with this story take a look at Think of the story and begin to break down the components and characters. The 3 little pigs walking along into the outside world, stamping and walking sounds The big bad wolf what type of sound might the wolf make - growl, feet padding on the floor The pigs when are frightened shaking and rattling (using a shaker made earlier!) or perhaps squealing, use a balloon half blown up, stretch the neck and let the air out so that the balloon squeals. Building of houses consider the type of materials what would straw sound like rustling, what would sticks sound like being banged or rubbed together and what would bricks sound like being banged together. Take a look around and see what could be used to replicate those noises. The story repeats the words the wolf huffed and he puffed consider how this sound could be made, either by asking the children to blow or if not appropriate to an individual child s ability then what else could be used? Letting the air out of the balloon (could include watching the balloon fly across the room) What else within the story could incorporate sound? The items used can be gathered each time you tell the story or held together in a story sack with the book and a range of activities. The sack could be an old pillowcase, carrier bag or draw string bag. It does not matter. How else could you incorporate sensory play into stories? Broaden your thinking and imagination, expand the elements of the story and think creatively to encourage sensory play. For example when the little pigs were hiding perhaps they had a torch to see in the dark? When they were frightened did they cuddle their teddy bears? Add bits into the bag that are new the child so there is a sense of expectation when opening the story sack. Challenge: The story illustrated is one example, how can you incorporate sound into other stories? 5

6 4. Playing outside with sound Go on a listening walk taking paper and pens with you to record what you hear, or make a list of what you would like to hear and tick it off when heard, examples may include: Traffic A police car or ambulance A motorbike A baby crying Leaves rustling A lawn mower A door slamming Water running Footsteps Birds singing An aeroplane overhead Again, the list is endless, encourage the child or young person you are working with to come up with their own ideas. Try making a visual list of sounds using pictures. When you next go to the park or out on a trip take a sound box or bag and fill it up with things you can take home to remind you of your trip. For instance collect some gravel, how does that sound running through your fingers. Two sticks rubbed together may remind you of the woods, dried leaves can be bought back and scrunched together to remind you of walking through dead leaves. Encourage the child or young person to be imaginative. Recreate sounds that you can hear outside, perhaps a bumble bee buzzing, or a car horn. Discuss what the child feels the sound is like, angry, noisy, quite, gentle, cross and so on. Play games using sound for instance when I make the sound of a frog you need to jump begin by making sounds of other animals so that the child is listening for the sound of a frog. Ask the child to make the sound of an animal displaying an emotion for instance an angry bear or a happy butterfly. These types of games offer an opportunity to encourage physical activity and actions in addition to sound. Challenge what other types of games have you played as a child that involve noise and sound? How can they be used or adapted for the child or young person in your care? 6