Sound Newsletter 2007-2008
Volume 1, Issue 4.5
Parent Background:
Sound is a form of energy. In a nutshell, sound is caused by vibrating objects and
it needs a substance through which to move and a receiver. Sounds can be loud, quiet,
soft, or harsh. If you are in a room with loud music, you can feel the vibrations in the air.
We can detect vibrations directly by putting our hand on our Adam’s apple when we
speak or by touching a vibrating tuning fork to the surface of water. Sound vibrations
travel through air, wood, metal, water, or any medium.
Different kinds of vibrations make different kinds of sounds. The rate of a
vibration (or the number of times an object vibrates per second) is the frequency. The
frequency determines the pitch (the highness or lowness) of a sound. A fast vibration
makes a high pitch tone and a slow vibration makes a low pitch tone. A canary’s song is
full of high notes while a lion’s roar is made of low notes. In high sounds, like the
canary’s song, compressions happen more often so the frequency is higher. In lower
sounds, such as the lion’s roar, compressions happen less often and the frequency is
lower.
Students will know…
Students will be able to…
 sounds travel at different speeds
 manipulate a variety of objects to
through different media (solids,
produce vibrations and create sound
liquids, gases)
 demonstrate how to change the pitch
of a vibrating object
 fast vibrations create a high pitch
 slow vibrations create a low pitch
Ways Parents
Can Help
Here are some activities you and your 4th grader can do together:
1. Visit http://www.bow.k12.nh.us/soundenergy/Default.htm with
your child and read/watch the Power points on sound lessons
with them. Do the activities and quizzes together.
2. Check out nonfiction books from the library about sound energy
and look in the index for pitch and vibrations.
Try these links:
1) http://library.thinkquest.org/19537
Everything you want to know about sound with some interactive links
2) http://www.smm.org/sound/nocss/activity/top.html
A variety of sound activities
Please!
We need the following
materials for our science
experiments:
Straws
Clean empty plastic bottles
8 oz.– 2 liters sizes
PVC pipe various lengths
Metal forks
Coffee cans
Aluminum pie pans
Various dried beans
Paint stirrers
string
Vocabulary
frequency – The number of vibrations per second.
pitch – The highness or lowness of a sound due to differences in frequency.
sound – A form of energy caused by back-and-forth vibrations that travel through a
medium (solid, liquid, or gas) and can be heard.
vibration – The back and forth movement of an object.
Sample Test Prep Question #1
Sample Test Prep Question #2
Janet wants to buy the wind chime that
will make the lowest pitch.
Which wind chime should she buy?
Sound Sillies
What has ears but cannot hear
a sound?
Corn
Answers from Test Prep
1. A
2. D