Welcome to Part 1 of our series on Nature Education: Exploring the 5 senses.  Today we are exploring sound in the woods.

Exploring the 5 senses can be very fun, and the learning can happen very naturally.  In this series we will look at simple ways we can help our wee ones learning about the power of their 5 senses naturally – outside while exploring. I love nature education and nature learning with my wee ones.

To explore sound outside we went on a Nature Walk through our favourite part of the woods with a few sticks.  We found some thick sticks, thin sticks, long sticks, and short sticks.  As we were finding the sticks we did some listening.  We heard the leaves crunching under our feet, a squirrel jumping through some branches, the wind blowing through the thinning trees, and Benjamin chit chatting away (we is not much of a quiet listener yet, this baby of ours).  After we found our sticks we were off to make some noise!

Sammy found a tree with very rough bark and rubbed the sticks against the trees.  It was interesting to hear the different sounds the sticks made on this one tree.  The thin sticks made a much lighter, higher sound and the thick stick made a heavier and lower sound. After, we did the same rubbing on a tree with much finer bark to compare the sounds.

Sammy decided to brush the sticks through the leaves to make sound.  It sounded very much like the squirrel we had heard before – rustling through the branches.  The top layer of leaves was very dry and made this rustling sound, the bottom layer of leaves was damp and made a very different sound.

Next we saw some moss on a log.  Sammy ran his stick over the moss.  At first he thought it didn’t make any sound at all – but putting his ear very close he noticed it did make a sound.  It was much more muffled and quiet then the tree bark, almost like rubbing a stick along a carpet.

We found a tree stump that had a hole in the middle, which was wonderful for experimenting with sound.  Sammy tested out the different sticks banging them back and forth inside the whole and then along the side of the stump.  It was interesting how different this hollow stump sounded than a regular tree.  The stump made a much lower sound at the bottom and a higher sound at the top.  Sammy decided it must be because the stump was thinner at the top.

Experimenting with sound in the woods was a wonderful exploration!  We learned all about different sounds and pitches by creating them ourselves.  Sammy continued this exploring even at home.  He was tapping spoons on tables, lamps, and the floor listening and learning all the while.

Please join us next Monday for the next part of our Nature Education Series: Exploring the 5 senses.

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