The Five Senses: Supplemental Guide 2C | I Use My Ears to Hear 63
[If available, demonstrate how a real drum vibrates when hit. Allow a few
students to try hitting the drum to feel the vibration.]
When these vibrations move from your ear to your brain, your brain
can figure out what sound made the vibrations.
[Point from the eardrum to where the brain would be located.]
Your brain can also figure out if the sound is loud or quiet, and if it’s
high or low.
With your partner, think of three loud sounds and three quiet sounds.
[Allow thirty seconds for students to talk. Call on a three partner pairs to share.]
Show image 3A-5: Red fire alarm
One way to talk about a sound is to tell how loud or quiet it is.
This is called the volume of a sound. A whisper is a quiet or soft
sound and has a low or soft volume. A fire alarm is a loud sound and
has a high or loud volume.
What are different ways your sense of hearing protects you?
[Answers may include: a fire alarm tells me that there may be a fire; a car
honking tells me to watch out for the car; listening to adults’ directions when
doing something for the first time helps keep me safe.]
Show image 3A-6: Ear protection
You should protect your ears and your sense of hearing.
[Talk about what kinds of jobs the people in the image may have and what
kinds of loud sounds could harm them if they didn’t protect their ears.]
If you hear a really loud noise, you might quickly use your hands to
cover your ears to keep your eardrums safe from the loud volume that
might hurt them. Show me how you would cover your ears.
Sometimes, people use ear plugs or earmuffs to protect their ears.
[Point to the different pictures of earmuffs.]
So, protect your ears from loud noises, and unless a parent or doctor
is helping you, never put anything in your ears. So, again, what are the
only things that should go into your ears?
- Sound waves are the only things that should go into my ears.