Learn about how sound is made! Make science fun for kids of all ages by teaching them how sound is made. This sound activity is great for all curriculum whether you’re in the classroom or at home. Kids, bother younger children and older children, will have so much fun learning how sound is made.
How Sound Is Made Activity For Kids
It’s a well known fact that from the time they are babies, children love cause and effect. If I shake this rattle I hear a sound. When I push my toy car, it rolls along the floor. When I bang a wooden spoon on this saucepan it makes a noise. Lots of noise!
Related: Good Manners for Kids and How to Teach Gratitude to Children
Cause and effect is how children learn to control and interact with their environment, and understanding cause and effect helps to develop problem solving skills. With that in mind, I created this fun activity for my three year old son, R, to give him a visual understanding of how sound is created when he bangs a drum.
This experiment was so much fun! It took only minutes to put together, we made lots of noise, quite a bit of mess, and we learned quite a lot as well!
Supplies Needed To Teach Kids How Sound Is Made
- Containers of various sizes (empty tin cans and bowls work well)
- Chopsticks or wooden spoons to act as drumsticks
- Cellophane paper and extra large balloons for the drumskins
- Various materials to bounce on the drums (we used rice, flour, dried beans and marbles)
- Rubber bands
- Pair of scissors
Directions To Learn How Sound Is Made
Let’s first put the activity together and then spend time not only having fun, but learning. But first:
Make Your Drums
Step 1
Using the scissors, cut the end off the balloon (the part you would blow into).
Step 2
Now stretch the balloon over your chosen container and you’re done! Instant drum.
Step 3
For your next drum, cut the cellophane paper to fit over one of your other containers and secure with a rubber band. There! Two drums made in minutes.
Setting Up Your Experiment
Set up your experiment. Add various items such as:
- Rice
- Dried beans
- Marbles
- Beads
- Fish Rocks
- Confetti
- Sprinkles
To the top of each drum. Place it as closely as you can to the middle.
Play And Learn With Your How Sound Is Made Experiment
Play!
Now start banging those drums and watch the rice, beans and marbles fly all over the place!
How Sound Is Made Drum Experiment Explanation
You’ll see that when you hit the drum the stuff on the drum behaves very similarly to air molecules when you hit your drum. The skin vibrates and will make the items on the drum dance.
When air molecules vibrates against one another sound wave are formed and that is how sound is made!
Variations On This Drum and Sound Experiment
Did you know you can change the sound and volume of this experiment? You can and it is so easy!
1. Changing Pitch Of The Drum
The pitch of the drum is dependent on how tight the skin of the drum is. If you have a tight skin on your drum, it will have a higher pitched noise. The looser the skin, but more low the noise will be.
2. Changing Sound Of The Drum
Sound is also dependent on the amount of air inside of the drum. The more air inside your drum the lower notes you will have. The less air inside your drum the higher notes you will have.
3. Changing Volume Of The Drum
Volume of your drum is dependent on the size of vibrations. If you hit the drum hard (be careful not to break your drum) you will have a loud sound. If you hit your drum softly, you will have a quieter sound.
More Experiments To Try With This How Sound Is Made Drum Activity
This was great fun and there were plenty of giggles and shouts as we played. You could extend the learning potential of this activity by asking questions such as:
- Which drum surface causes the objects on top to bounce the highest?
- Which drum surface causes the objects on top to bounce for the longest time?
- Which objects have the most bounce?
- How are the results affected if you bang your drumstick softly or more heavily?
Materials
- Containers of various sizes (empty tin cans and bowls work well)
- Chopsticks or wooden spoons to act as drumsticks
- Cellophane paper and extra large balloons for the drumskins
- Various materials to bounce on the drums (we used rice, flour, dried beans and marbles)
- Rubber bands
- Pair of scissors
Instructions
- Using the scissors, cut the end off the balloon (the part you would blow into).
- Now stretch the balloon over your chosen container and you’re done! Instant drum.
- For your next drum, cut the cellophane paper to fit over one of your other containers and secure with a rubber band.
- Place items towards the middle of the drum like rice, confetti, marbles, sprinkles, etc.
- Start banging those drums with sticks and watch as the items go everywhere, but also hit each other.
More Fun Activities About Sound From Kids Activities blog
Was your little one able to learn how sound is made? Did you do any sound variations with the drums?