Learning is Fun

Note: the letters and page numbers in parenthesis refers to the activity and page numbers in the KONOS curriculum.

This weeks focus Bible verse:
Isiah  55:3 - Incline your ear and come to me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

In 'Attentiveness' this week, we continue our focus on the ear and sound. Today we looked at what sound is. We started off our activities with a quick game of 'Hide the Clock' (kk pg 17). We each had a turn to hide the ticking clock for one another. Listening closely - we tracked the soft tick-ticking. After our game our ears were tuned in and minds focused on today's lesson.

Next I read from a great resource I found right in our own home library, 'The Science Library Encyclopedias'. This is an old set of science books written for children about 40 years ago. However - the information has not changed and I love the way that they are written in an engaging way. We read about what sound is, interspersing a couple of activities throughout. We observe how vibration causes sound and how the length of an object changes the sound the object makes by using a ruler (instead of a hacksaw blade) and setting it in motion (cc pg 15).

A bit more reading... we then use a table fork and strike it against a hard object causing it to ring. We place the back of the ringing fork between our teeth and notice how it vibrates, causing our teeth to tingle.

We then gather together all the things we need to make sound-scope (f pg 12), we want to see the vibrations that our own voices make. I hand the girls the instructions on how to make the sound-scope and step away. This, by the way, is always the hardest thing for me. I have an overwhelming need most of the time to 'instruct' and 'help' in our activities. But I am really trying to take Jessica Hulcey's advice to let the children alone and let them figure it out.

It is another rainy day here in England so there is not much chance of us catching some sunlight to reflect off the bit of mirror on our sound-scope's membrane. The girls have a solution though and close all the curtains and grab a flashlight to provide some reflecting light.

 There is much surprise and laughter as they take turns to shout into their sound-scope and watch the light bouncing about the wall. 'I just love learning like this', says KK2 gleefully. YIP - that's the joy of learning with KONOS ;o)