Classroom exercises to promote learning include letting the children create drawings or take notes about various sounds heard outdoors. When describing a sound, the children can identify whether the pitch sounds high or low and describe the volume level of the pitch. For instance, a bulldozer might have a low and loud pitch, while a bird might have a high and soft pitch. The students can also sit and concentrate one specific sound at a time.
Several different types of materials can be used to illustrate how sound travels. Wood, a glass of water or a large frozen ice cube can illustrate these properties. Students can try different ways to create sound, for example, strike each item with a wooden rod, to hear how the sound energy changes. The wooden block will slow down the sound more than a liquid substance; sound moving through the air is the fastest and most direct. The goal of this activity is to listen to how the texture of the sound changes and how sound energy distorts when encountering different objects.
Sound energy vibrates the strings on a string instrument causing them to resonate within an acoustic chamber. The energy then bounces around inside the instrument creating the instrument's characteristic tone. If there weren't a chamber for the sound to bounce against, it would dissipate more quickly in the air. Without the chamber, sound doesn't reverberate and resonate. Teachers can expose children to various stringed instruments to show how the size, shape and material of the chamber changes the sound produced by the strings.
Brass instruments are named so because of the metal alloy that is used to create the instrument. Brass instruments utilize vibrations created by the breath and lips of the performer to make a variety of sounds. The instrument's mouthpiece helps focus and direct the sound energy through the instrument. Teachers can have students listen to the sounds made by various brass instruments and experiment with making their own sounds on them.