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Enjoy teaching sound to your third, fourth, and fifth grade students! Check out these engaging activities, links, and freebies.

How to Enjoy Teaching Sound

Show, don't tell! Even big kids will love these simple, hands-on sound activities. Just set out some everyday items and let them explore. Before you know it, they'll be making their own scientific generalizations.

What Is Sound? Use a rubber band and a tuning fork to discover that sound is a vibration. Pluck the rubber band. What do you see? What do you hear? Now strike the tuning fork on your shoe (or the table). Hold it to your ear then touch it to the surface of water. Zap! The vibrations make water shoot all over.

How Does Sound Travel? Clap your hands behind your back and above your head. This shows that sound travels in all directions. Stretch a Slinky out across the floor with a partner. Now give one end a quick push. You'll see how longitudinal waves move in compressions and rarefactions.

What Is Amplitude? Being noisy at school is fun! Strike a table softly then harder. Pluck a rubber band gently then harder. Clap your hands lightly then harder. Yep, amplitude is increased when more force is used.

What Is Pitch? Stretch rubber bands of different lengths and widths around a box. Fill same-size bottles with varying amounts of water. Blow into a small bottle then a big jug. Students find that longer waves make lower sounds.

Which Materials Conduct and Insulate Sound? Line a coffee can with a soft cloth, aluminum foil, etc. Now shout into it. Which produces a greater sound? Tie the middle of a piece of string to a metal spoon, a plastic spoon, and a wooden spoon. Wrap the ends of the string to your pointer fingers and stick them in your ears. Now swing the spoon to strike the edge of a table. Boing! It's obvious that denser, smoother objects conduct sound better.

Does Sound Travel Better Through Solid, Liquid, or Gas? Place your ear against the lids of cans filled with air, water, and sand. Tap the side of the can. Are you surprised that sound travels best through a solid?

Learning Links

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Freebie

Enjoy teaching sound with this interactive student website. It includes the links above, opportunities for additional exploration, and a review. Feel free to share the link with your students. Kids love exploring on their own (and you'll have a little extra time to catch up on that grading!)

The Complete Unit

The complete unit, Exploring Sound, is available in my Teachers pay Teachers store. It includes a pretest, complete lesson plans, lab sheets, flash cards, and a posttest.

I post new ideas, activities, and free downloads every week. Click here for an index (and to see what's coming soon!)

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Enjoy teaching sound to your third, fourth, and fifth grade students! Check out these engaging activities, links, and freebies. How to Enjoy Teaching Sound Show, don't tell! Even big kids will love these simple, hands-on sound activities. Just set out some everyday items and let them explore.

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One of the coolest sound wave experiments your kids will ever try!

We love doing simple science experiments and every once in a while, we find a GEM.

So many of the science activities we do are ones that I've experienced before but are new to our kids.

And honestly, as they approach Middle School age, it's getting harder and harder to impress them ;)

But THIS ONE!

This is one of those really cool experiments that they thought was super cool and even I was impressed with ( and as my husband will tell you, I'm not easily impressed ;)

I should have titled this " Make Your Own Gong Using a Spoon and Fork" -- because that's exactly what you'll get to do!

It's a simple, easy and pretty awesome activity that explores the science of sound waves and how they travel.

Like our How does a Leaf Breathe? experiment, this sound wave project also explores the invisible side of science.

As you begin this vibration experiment, explain to your kids that you are going to test how sound travels.

They may not realize that when a 'noise' is made, it creates sound waves (which are not visible) that travel through the air and to our ears.

As with any of our experiments, we always start with a good book to help explain the science concepts!

Books about the Science of Sound Waves

Here are a few great books to pair with this activity along with affiliate links so you can easily learn more about each one:

Sounds All Around (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) is part of an amazing science book series that cover all the topics under the sun! This book explains how sound waves travel, how your ear receives sound and answers for more of the questions kids will ask.

Oscar and the Bat: A Book About Sound (Start with Science) is a new science series for younger kids. The books touch on the basic science concepts for each topic and have wonderful illustrations!

And another fun book, What's That Sound (Science Solves It!) has facts & activities related to sound - perfect for kids ages 6 - 10 years old.

Older kids will enjoy The Magic School Bus In The Haunted Museum: A Book About Sound -- a favorite science series! In this book, the class travels to a haunted house to learn about sound waves and vibration.

Science of Sound Experiment

You'll need a few items that I'm sure you can easily find around the house -- the affiliate links in our list will give you a quick description of each item:

A ruler (we found a wooden or heavy plastic ruler worked best)

Two different size spoons (try using a teaspoon and a serving spoon)

About 4 feet of string or yarn (this will depend on how tall you are as you can see below)

First, create a loop in the middle of the yarn/string and insert the handle of the spoon.

Pull tightly so that the spoon hangs in the center of the yarn/string and you have two long pieces of approximately equal length.

Then make a face at your Mom when she asks to take your photo ( this is an optional step, of course) :)

Take each string and wrap them around your pointer finger on each hand.

Then push the string against each ear (not into the ear but just outside like you are going to plug your ears because you don't want to hear your Mom ask you to do your chores :)

You'll want the spoon to hang just below the waist once both ends of the yarn are placed near the ears.

You can see in this photo that you don't have to use the end of each piece of yarn/string -- in fact, as you do the experiment, change how high or low the spoon hangs to see if it changes the sound.

Ok, here's the big moment ...

Once the string in pushed against the ears, have someone GENTLY hit the ruler against the round part of the spoon -- and watch the look on your child's face (priceless!)

Warning: Kids often think that the HARDER they hit the spoon, the louder the sound -- be sure to test out this theory too!

If you are using a small spoon, you should hear a distinct bell sound -- with a larger spoon, it will sound more like a gong.

Pretty cool!

The Science Behind the Sound Wave Experiment

Here's what's really happening during the activity -- I've highlighted some of the science terms that you can introduce to kids when discussing this experiment:

When the ruler hits the spoon, it creates vibrations which make sound waves. These sound waves travel up the yarn/string and to the ear instead of just spreading out into the air around you. The yarn acts as a conductor -- an object that allows sound waves to travel.

Depending on the size of the spoon and the length of yarn, the sound will appear higher (like a church bell) or deeper (like a gong).

And because the yarn allows the sound waves to continue to travel, the sound of the spoon will or reverberate -- meaning they will continue for a while after you have hit the spoon.

Another thing we found was that the only one who can hear the bell or gong sound will be the person with the string near their ears -- which we thought was also pretty cool. Everyone else in the room will just hear a faint 'tink' when the ruler hits the spoon.

Ok, we wanted to play around with the experiment a little more -- so we also used a serving fork (which is larger than a regular fork).

Do this too and you'll see that the tines on the fork create a totally different sound.

You can also try different types of yarn/string -- you'll find that the more dense the string, the better the sound will travel.

Want more? Try the Geeker Speaker Lab Kit that shows you how to make sound waves visible with 5 different experiments!

And don't forget to see all of our simple science experiments!

If you're looking for more ideas that explore sound waves, try these items:

More Human Body Science Experiments

Fingerprint Science for Kids

How Long are Your Small Intestines?

Looking for more Easy Science Experiments? Try these!

27 Simple Science Experiments

You might also like:

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The Science of Sound Waves: An Awesome Experiment for Kids

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One of the coolest sound wave experiments your kids will ever try! We love doing simple science experiments and every once in a while, we find a GEM. So many of the science activities we do are ones that I've experienced before but are new to our kids.

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Make a kazoo

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To teach vibrations

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Here's another 5-item science experiment for you, using items that you likely already have in your kitchen.

As you can imagine, this experiment can be pretty exciting for young children because they get to bang on a pan like it's a drum. Which also means you'll get some major "fun parent" points.

Because realistically, how often do you encourage your kids to use items from the kitchen like a drum. If you're like me, this will be the very first time it has ever happened.

Have fun with this one!

How to See Sound Science Experiment Video

Supplies Needed

Large Bowl

Plastic Wrap

1 teaspoon Uncooked Rice

Metal Pan (Cookie Sheets or Pans are good options, but they must be metal)

Metal Spoon

Experiment Instructions

Step 1 - Tear off a piece of plastic wrap big enough to cover the top of the bowl.

Step 2 - Secure the plastic wrap over the bowl. Make sure that the plastic wrap is very tight.

Step 3 - Pour 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice on the top of the plastic wrap.

Step 4 - Hold the metal pan in the air and position it next to the bowl.

Step 5 - Take the metal spoon and bang on the metal pan like a drum and watch what happens to the rice.

How Does the Experiment Work?

Sound is a disturbance that travels through a medium as a wave. In this experiment, when you hit the metal pan with the spoon, you disturb the particles of the pan causing them to vibrate. The vibrations in the pan are transferred to the air surrounding the pan, creating a sound wave.

When these sound waves reach the plastic wrap it disturbs the particles of the plastic wrap causing them to vibrate. These vibrations in the plastic wrap cause the rice to move. Sound waves traveling through the air are also what allow us to hear the noise of the spoon hitting the pan.

Other Ideas to Try

Try this experiment again, but change the distance of the pan from the bowl. As you move the pan farther away from the bowl, do the sound waves have the same effect on the rice grains?

I hope you enjoyed the experiment. Here are some printable instructions:

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Here's another 5-item science experiment for you, using items that you likely already have in your kitchen. As you can imagine, this experiment can be pretty exciting for young children because they get to bang on a pan like it's a drum. Which also means you'll get some major "fun parent" points.