Classroom Close-Up
I took a group of children out on the fire escape to listen to outdoor sounds. We sat silently for two minutes with our eyes closed, listening. Then we talked about things we heard.
“The wind, doing his thing.”
“Like he’s racing, but he’s not racing anyone.“
“What does the wind sound like?” I asked.
“Ooooo.” “Whoosh!”
“I heard the plastic bag blowing in the wind,” said Jai’lysa.
“I heard an airplane. Rummmm. It went that way,” said Terell.
“How did you know it was a plane?” I asked. “You couldn’t see it.”
“It went over my head. My head (Terell tapped the top of his head) could see it.”
“He was thinking,” explained Olivia.
“I used my brain,” said Terell.
“And your ears,” said Jeron.
“And my head to figure out a plane was going by,” asserted Terell.
“I think maybe you were smart,” said Jai’lysa.
—Jazmine, preschool teacher
The kids and I love storybooks that have words that imitate the sounds that things make. For example, in the story Jonathan and His Mommy, Irene Smalls uses words that sound like the sounds your feet make as you skip down the street. After we read the book, we got up and skipped around our room, listening to our feet making the sounds that Irene Smalls had described.
Books like Buzz! by Janet Wong led us into conversations about the way different sounds can make us feel. We talked about sounds that make us feel scared, happy, sad, and excited. The kids drew pictures of some of their favorite sounds and then I recorded them making those sounds. I played the recording back to the group, and the kids tried to guess who was making each sound and what it was. They all listened really closely and many times they guessed the person and the sound correctly!
—Jazmine, preschool teacher