Good Vibrations (teaching sound) and a freebie!

Yo, it's about that time
To bring forth the rhythm and the rhyme
or to teach physics!

Hey y'all! It's Rachel from the tattooed teacher!

We just finished up our process skills booklets and now that we are officially trained scientists, we will begin our first unit on Monday...Sound Energy! What?! that doesn't sound exciting to you!?

Well, when I first moved to 2nd grade, teaching an abstract concept such as sound, well...freaked me out! How was I going to teach 7 year olds about things you cannot see!?

After weeks of Pinteresting, Googling, and reading (and teaching it always helps, even if I was confused most of the time!) I finally put together ideas and activities to teach all about sound!

Here's what I am responsible for teaching in 2nd grade physics

I know right!? crazy. But here's what I came up with!

But I promise it's not all that bad! Is it as fun to teach as my beloved mealworms, no. But it is better than a few other units I've had to cover! We use lots of hands-on activities and demonstrations for this unit. A favorite are the tuning forks! Those little guys are amazing! fyi-do not put it on your earring...just trust me!

here's some little bits testing out different pitches and volumes

sorry-these pictures are 4 years old! 

and here were are testing how sound travels-our room is beside the boys restroom on our hall-so we already have a good idea of a few materials that sound can travel through!

we use a yard stick and then wrap it with foil then slip the stick out to test just the aluminum. 

DO you have to teach sound energy? If so, here's the very first activity we use (and you will see it on my visual plans this week when I link up with Deedee!) We will be going on a little sound field trip around the school to kickstart a discussion on loud and soft as well as nice sounds and not so pleasant ones.

and if you need more...check out my Good Vibrations unit!

and I leave you with this...because I CANNOT look at this unit and NOT sing some Marky Mark!