Learning about Sound
30 Nov 2023
In our work about sound, we learnt that sound sources vibrate to make sounds. We explored some sound sources and found that we can see and feel vibrations when sounds are made. We started by placing our hands on our throats and felt the vibrations from our vocal cords when we were speaking. We tapped tuning forks onto the table and we could feel the vibrations travelling through them.
We placed a few grains of rice onto a drum and then gently banged the drum. We observed the grains of rice bouncing on the drum skin whenever we beat the drum because the vibrations passed to the rice grains so that they also vibrated.
We observed vibrations from a tuning fork when we tapped it then gently lowered it into a bowl of water. As the tuning fork entered the water, the vibrations from the tuning fork travelled through the water making ripples as the water vibrated.
We have used books and the internet to research for information about sound. We found out that vibrations can be shown as a picture. The size of the vibration is called the amplitude. Quieter sounds have a smaller amplitude and louder sounds have a bigger amplitude.
We enjoyed exploring a variety of instruments to find out how the pitch of a sound can be changed. We found patterns in how to change the pitch to make higher or lower sounds. On the xylophone and panpipes, the longer parts of the instrument made a lower pitched sound and the shorter parts made the highest pitched sound. Covering more holes on the blowing instruments changed the pitch, whilst the string instruments changed pitch when the strings were pressed down to make them longer or shorter.
We made string telephones and had lots of fun talking to our partners through them. We tested to find out what happened if the string was tight or loose and we explored the effect of having a shorter or longer string.
On Tuesday, we spent some time considering what it would be like if we couldn’t hear anything. We learnt that deaf people have to watch carefully to see what a person is saying. They also use a special set of actions, called sign language to send and receive messages. We had a go at signing some names and found it quite difficult! We realised that we are very fortunate to be able to hear.
In maths, we have been working hard on exchanging in addition and subtraction calculations. This week, Year 3 have been working on adding and subtracting 3 digit and 2 digit numbers, whilst Year 4 have focussed on solving some problems with more than one step.
Alongside all our other work, we are busy preparing for our Christmas production, which we are very excited about.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Micklefield and Miss Wray