Counting is usually a visual activity – we look and point as we count the objects in front of us. What if we engage the sense of hearing, and make it into a listening game? This activity includes both in-person and online activities for remote learning.
Materials:
- A metal pail or container: We recommend metal because it makes a crisp, loud sound when an object hits the bottom, but other materials might also work.
- Various small objects to drop into the pail/container: acorns, coins, Lego pieces, etc.
- Optional: A good book for read-aloud connecting to this experience is Blueberries for Sal by Robert McKloskey.
Instructions:
- Introduce the activity to children by saying, “We are doing a different kind of counting today. We are going to count with our ears.”
- If you have read Blueberries for Sal, discuss the dropping of blueberries in the pail with the onomatopoeia “kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk” and talk about how many blueberries were dropped in the pail according to the sound.
- Practice as a whole group and have the children close their eyes and count in unison each time an acorn is dropped into the pail.
- After they have mastered counting in unison, have them count in whispers, and eventually in silence. Ask “How many did you hear?” at the end. As children become more familiar with the routine, you can ask them to silently hold up their fingers to show how many objects are in the pail.
- Spill the contents of the pail and count them as a whole group to check.
- This listening game can be played as a warm-up or transition routine.
- For variation, drop different objects into the pail and have the children guess what object it is in addition to counting.
- If you have instruments in the classroom use them to make rhythmic sounds and count the sounds after practicing with the pail. This is a great introduction to beat and meter!
Here’s a video of how Adam would introduce this activity to young children, and scaffold their understanding.
Modifications:
Online Activity for Remote Learning
When schools were closed due to Covid 19 in Italy, the educators in Reggio Emilia created the website At Home With the Reggio Approach. One of the activities is Sound Riddle, where you can find a good number of short recordings of interesting sounds. As they explained:
“Taking advantage of the evocative power of sound we’d like to offer you some sound riddles because as Caterina, a girl aged 5 years 4 months says, Sometimes sounds seem to be one thing but [really] they’re something else.
We hope you have fun listening to these riddles together with children, trying to guess what produced them, and imagining what else they could be.
What is it?
What does it remind you of?
Where might you have heard the sound?
Let your imagination run away with you… even though we’re cooped up at home perhaps we’ll feel like we’re somewhere else.”
Sound Riddle, At Home With the Reggio Emilia Approach
We encourage you to be mathful with Sound Riddles, and ask questions such as:
- How many…. did you hear?
- Is there a pattern to the sounds? What is it?
As you see on the Sound Riddles webpage, the recordings were started by teachers and eventually children from all over Italy submitted their recordings. Encourage your children to do the same, share the recordings, listen, guess, and count together while apart!