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Explore and Play: Mystery Alarm

Track down that sound!

Materials

  • two timers: a kitchen timer, alarm clock, or cell phone alarm

Key Science Concepts

  • Different objects make different sounds.
  • Sounds have a source—a sound can be tracked to its source.

Directions

  1. Excuse yourself for a moment while children continue to sit in the circle, and hide the two timers in other rooms, setting one for two or three minutes after the current time, and the other for three or four minutes after the current time.
  2. When you return, tell children that just like Quack, they are going to hear some mystery sounds. When they hear each sound, tell them to search for it, bringing it back to the circle. (While waiting for the alarm to go off, ask children to think of a noise they’ve heard that annoys them as much as the crow noise that Quack heard.)

Reflect and Share

When children hear the alarm(s) and bring them back to the circle, ask, How did you track that sound down? How could you tell what room it was in?