Adventures For Your Ears: 5 Short Activities
Ages: 8+
Time: 30 minutes- 1 hour depending on the activity
Learning Objectives:
Students will learn how to use their hearing to problem solve, negotiate distance and navigate in the world
Students will learn to use all senses to inspire writing
Curricular Connections: KS3, MYP, Fun, STEM, Empathy, Communication, Self-knowledge
Activity #1 Noise Journal
Materials: piece of paper/journal, writing utensil
For 2 minutes, students sit quietly and write down every noise they hear during that time, and then compare lists. Examples could be voices from the next room, someone walking down the hallway, birds outside the window, hum of the air condition- ing, etc. Some sounds may only heard by students in a particular area of the room. This activity is also easily done outside.
Activity #2 Shake It Up
Materials: film canisters/plastic eggs, beads, coins, other small objects.
Fill small, opaque containers (like plastic eggs or film canisters) with a variety of small objects and materials. Shake each one. Students try to figure out what is inside each container based only on the sound it makes.
Once the contents from the activity above have been identified, shake the same containers in a specific order. Pause briefly. Students write down the order in which they remember hearing the sounds. This activity can also be done by having the students close their eyes while various surfaces in the room are struck or musical instruments played in a particular order.
Activity #3 Keep An Ear Out
Materials: piece of paper/journal, writing utensil
Without the students looking, the teacher creates sound from 3 different objects or actions. For example, slide a chair, close the door, or turn on a faucet. Students write down what they think is the source each sound, then write or tell a short story that incorporates all of the sounds.
Activity #4 Signature Sound
Materials: computer, props of your choosing
Think of 3 sounds that are specific to your favourite place or a location in your neighborhood. Recreate those sounds, using either props, audio on a computer or your own voice. Ask a partner or your class to identify “your place.”
Activity #5 Find Your Friends
Materials: blindfolds
For this activity you will need an open space. Push the chairs and desks to the back of the classroom or a larger space.
Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. In each group, one student will be blindfolded. Each group also must decide on a strategy, such as a particular sound, they can use to locate each other when they are split up and spread out.
The blindfolded students stand in the middle of the room. For 5–8 seconds, the rest of the class spreads out around the room. When time is up, everyone stops and stands wherever they are.
Using only their predetermined strategy, the blind person must find the rest of the people in their group.
When the blind student locates a group member, the member puts on a blindfold as well and walks around together with the first student to continue rounding up the rest.
The first team to reunite all its members wins. What made the task easier or harder? How does the activity relate to events in the daily life of a person with a visual disability?