Student: Tessa VanderStel School: Frances Slocum Elementary School

IWU Supervisor: Dr. Leffler Co-op Teacher: Mrs. Sloan

Teaching Date: December 4, 2018 Grade Level: 1st Grade
Lesson Title: Sound waves and vibrations

Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template
CAEP 2018 K-6 Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards

LESSON RATIONALE
Students in this classroom are most attentive when seated at their desks. I have created experiments that allow them
to work together in groups at tables while still receiving instruction from me. Through these experiments they will
receive multiple examples of sound and vibration and they will be active participants. Students will be learning
about sound because it is a part of their everyday lives.
READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s): Students will be able to explain that sound travels in waves and moves differently through solids,
liquids, and gasses.
B. Objective(s): After conducting an experiment, students will be able to communicate their understanding of
sound.
C. Standard(s): 1.PS.3 Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make
sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.

II. Management Plan

 Time – 45 minutes

 Space – begin at carpet; move back to group tables for the experiments

 Materials – Computer and speakers for anticipatory set, PowerPoint (3 slides attached at end of lesson
plan), 5 spoons, 5 spoons with string already on them, 5 “telephones” (already created from cups and
string), blank sheets of paper for each student

 Expectations and procedures

o Groups are based on tables in the classroom that are already established (some students are
sitting at desks, so I will pull their seats together to create a quad)
Trammy Caleb Filomena Kellen Kallie
Harlee Cobain Tazra Toby Josiah
Jonathan Sophia Paxton Jazmin Shantell
Jamar Remyia T’Sean Madolyn

III. Anticipatory Set (5 minutes)

 Call students to the carpet
  We hear sounds around us every day! What are some sounds that you have heard already today? One
example would be my voice – you hear me talking right now.
 Call on students.
 Go to www.findsounds.com
 I want you to listen to some sounds that you might not hear every day. These are sounds that animals make
or that you might hear in nature. You have to be really quiet when I play the sound because I want
everyone to be able to hear. When the sound is done playing you can turn to the people around you and
whisper what you think the sound is. Then I will call on someone to tell us what they think the sound is.
 Play multiple sounds for students: cat, frog, river, thunder, etc.
 Purpose: Today we are going to learn about how sound works because sound affects our everyday lives!

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

IV. Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners
 I made this lesson as hands-on as possible because I believe that students in my classroom who get easily
distracted need to be actively engaged to keep interest.
 For the assessment, students are allowed to draw a picture rather than write because some students cannot
yet express themselves through writing.
V. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output) (30 minutes)
Input
 In order for something to make sound, there has to be a vibration. Let’s say the word vibration together.
Who can tell me what they think vibration means?
 Call on students. Right, it is when something moves back and forth really fast.
 When something vibrates, it creates sound waves. Let’s make wave motions together. Move arm up and
down like a wave. These waves reach your ear, and that is how you can hear the sounds.
 Waves can move through the air to get to your ear, but I wonder if sound can move through something else,
like a solid. Who can tell me what a solid is? Or does anyone know any examples of a solid?
 Allow students to respond. Right, a solid is something that is hard and nothing can move through it. Like a
desk, a wall, or even something smaller and thinner like a string or a piece of paper.
 Pose a Question - Do you think that sounds can move through solids? Can sound move through something
like a table or a wall? I have that question right here (on PowerPoint): “Can sound waves move through a
solid” Like a desk maybe?
 Hypothesize - Raise your hand if you think that sound canNOT move through a solid. Raise your hand if
you think that it CAN.
 I’m not going to tell you the answer to that question. Good scientists experiment and test things on their
own, so that is what we are going to do.
 Now I want all of you to tiptoe quietly back to your tables – we are going to try something at your table. We
have to be really quiet to be able to hear what we are about to do, though.
  Test - I want all of you to knock your hand on your table. We can all hear a noise because the waves –
make the motion with me! – are traveling through the air and hitting our ears.
 Now lay your ear on the table and knock on the table. What do you hear?
 Let students have initial reactions – the sound will be very loud through the table.
 The sound just moved through a solid – the table! So what is the answer to our question? “Can sounds
move though a solid?” YES.
Output
 Pose a Question – Now I am curious if sounds moves better through the air or better through a solid.
Which one sounds louder? That is our next question (On PowerPoint). “Is sound louder when it moves
through air or when it moves through a solid?”
 Hypothesize – Now we are going to make a prediction – a prediction is a best guess based on what we
already know. So, based on what you heard, when you knocked on the table and then when you laid your
ear on the table and knocked again, which one do you think you could hear better? Which one was louder?
Raise your hand if you think sound moving through the air is louder. Raise your hand if you think sound
moving through a solid is louder.
 Test – Again, I’m not going to tell you the answer to that question. We are going to be good scientists and
run some experiments to find the answer for ourselves!
 I am going to hand out one of these to each table. This is a spoon, just like what you have at home. When
you hit it against something it makes a sound.. If we listen really quietly we can hear it. Now, you have to
share well with your friends at your table. You may hit the spoon on your table for about 10 seconds, but
then hand it to the next person.
 I want you to listen to the sounds you can hear.
 Hand out spoons to tables. Let students experiment.
 Now, when we hit the spoon on the table we can hear sound. So the sound waves must be moving to our
ear. How are they getting there? Are they moving through the air or through a solid?
 Allow students to respond.
 Right, they are moving through the air. Now let’s try having those sound waves move through a solid. I am
going to hand out a new spoon to each of your groups. This one has a string on it. I will show you what you
are going to do it.
 Demonstrate letting the spoon hang toward the ground. Wrap the ends of the string around your fingers and
then hold your fingers to your ears.
 I really want you to notice the difference between hearing the spoon through the air and through the string.
So try hitting the spoon on your table one more time and then put it up to your ears. Notice the difference.
 Hand out spoons with strings. Allow students time to experiment. Walk among students to observe their
discussions.
  Alright, now that you have had time to experiment raise your hand if you think you know which sound was
louder. Was it louder when you heard the spoon hit on the table without the string or when you had the
string held up to your ears?
 Allow student time for response. Remind students that the first time we just hit the spoon on the table, the
sound waves were moving through the air, but the second time the sound waves were moving through a
string. The first time was air, and the second time was a solid.
 It sounds like most of you would agree that the sound coming from the string was the loudest. So right now
I think our answer is that sound is louder when it moves through a solid. We are going to try one more
experiment to see if we are right. Have a student collect the tuning forks and bring them to me.
 We tried a lot of different ways to make sound. Remember, we need a vibration to make a sound. The table
vibrated when we knocked on it, and the spoon vibrated when we hit the table with it. I want to try one
other way of making sound. What about using our voice? Does something vibrate when we use our voice? I
want you to try this with me. Put your hand on your throat right here and say “ahhhh.” Can you feel your
throat vibrating? Allow students time to experiment.
 Pull out cup telephone. Does anyone know what this is? This is called a cup and string telephone. We are
going to use these to continue to test our theory that sound travels better through solids than through the
air. The sound we are going to use this time is our voice.
 Again, you will have to take turns with these phones so that everyone in your group has a chance to talk
and listen. Mrs. Sloan and I will demonstrate how these work. Demonstrate. Now, I want you to whisper
into these telephones so that everyone can hear.
 Try talking to your friend without the cup and string telephone, and then talk into the cup and string
telephone. Which one do you think will sound louder?
 Hand out cup and string telephones. Walk among students while they are experimenting. Ask questions
(such as: why do you think it is louder through a solid? What happens when the string is not pulled tight?
Why do you think that is?) to help them guide their thinking.
 So, did sound travel better through the air – when you were just talking to each other across the table? Or
through the solid, when you were talking through the cup and string?
 Allow time for student responses – have a student collect the cups and strings and bring them to me.
VI. Check for understanding. (3 minutes)
 So let’s go back to our original question. Do sound waves travel better through a solid or through the air?
 Allow students to answer, and ask them to explain their reasoning. If students say “through the air,” lead
them back to the experiments and what they were able to observe.
VII. Review learning outcomes / Closure (7 minutes)
 Now I am going to hand each of you a blank sheet of paper. I want you to write one sentence about sound
waves. Then you can draw a picture of our experiments – how we used the table, the spoon, and our voices
to learn more about sound.
  Thank you for participating! If you want to really impress someone that you live with, you can do the same
experiment that we did with spoon. Try to see if there are any other things that work in your house to help
you think about how sound can move through solids. Can you knock on a wall and have someone on the
other side of the wall hear you? Try experimenting at home and you can report back to me!
PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT
 Informal assessment through listening to students’ discussions during experiments – if some students seem
to not be grasping the objective, ask them specific questions about their experiment to help lead them to the
answer.
 Students either write a sentence or draw a picture showing what they have learned about how sounds move
through solids and through the air.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
According to all my observations and the final assessment, all of the students achieved the lesson objective.
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
One of my strengths was following through on my management plan. Students were motivated by the prize that was
promised to them at the end of the lesson if they worked together well. One weakness was that I forgot a few aspects
of my lesson that were important for the students to learn – my purpose statement and telling students that a string is
a solid.
3. How should I alter this lesson?
I would make sure that our experiments have a control. For example, when tapping the spoon, students should have
tapped it on the chair quietly first, and then held it up to their ears with the string. With the cup/string telephone,
students should have talked to each other first and then talked through the cups.
4. How would I pace it differently?
I would tell students how much time they had for exploration and then let them know periodically how much time
they had less. This would keep them focused and remind them when they needed to let their partners have a turn.
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
Yes! All of the students were excited and engaged in the exploration process.
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
As soon as I let students begin experimenting, I approached the students who were below grade level. I asked them
questions that helped to guide them in their understanding. If I hadn’t approached these students, they may not have
gained the objective. This lesson was great for both kinesthetic and auditory learners!
7. Were the size of my groups helpful, or should they have been bigger or smaller?
I think that the size of the groups worked well. If I did this lesson again I would probably split the students into pairs
of two because then students would get more time to experiment, rather than having “wait time.”
8. Were students able to focus during direct instruction? If not, how could I have better held their
attention?
The direct instruction seemed to be too long for my students. They began to lose attention as the lesson went on. I
could have had more participation through allowing students to each make sounds individually and have their peers
guess what the sounds were. I could have had more pictures of what we were going to be doing to demonstrate more
efficiently than just describing.
9. Was the assessment too difficult for my students? If so, how could I have changed it?
I think the assessment was effective because students were able to describe their experience through a drawing.
However, I am not convinced that it completely assessed whether or not students had achieved the objective. I think
student discussion was more effective for assessment purposes.