Resources Needed:
This lesson was developed and contributed by Holly Little.
1. Book, Water Dance by Thomas Locker
2. Instruments or various items to create sound effects
Introduction:
1. Ask students to tell you the different places they see or experience water.
2. Ask students if they can make the sound of water using their bodies or their voices.
Lesson:
1. Read the book, Water Dance by Thomas Locker
2. Together as a class, select one of the pictures in the book to create a soundscape for. (A soundscape is a sound representation of a picture.)
3. Ask the students what kind of sound the water might make in the picture. How could we make that sound?
4. Brainstorm the different sounds you might hear if you were the person taking the picture. Make a list on the board of all the different sounds. You can encourage students to think of sounds they might hear that they cannot necessarily see in the picture (e.g. animals/birds).
5. As a group, decide how you could make the different sounds using instruments or found objects. Assign the different sounds to certain students/groups.
6. As a class, perform the soundscape. What could you do/change to make it sound more realistic? You can discuss the elements of music such as dynamics (volume), timbre (quality), tempo (speed), pitch (high/low sounds), etc.
Follow Up Activities:
1. Assign the different pictures in the book to small groups. Have each group create a soundscape for their assigned picture.
2. Read the book again, with each group’s sound effects occurring in the background as you read.