54K Shares

Learn about how sound is made! Make science fun for kids of all ages by teaching them how sound is made. This sound activity is great for all curriculum whether you’re in the classroom or at home. Kids, bother younger children and older children, will have so much fun learning how sound is made.

Text: Teaching kids how sound is made- bowl with cellophane, rubber band and rice, white tub with balloon and beans, and red can with green balloon and blue marbles- kids activities blog — Are you ready to learn how sound is made?

How Sound Is Made Activity For Kids

It’s a well known fact that from the time they are babies, children love cause and effect. If I shake this rattle I hear a sound. When I push my toy car, it rolls along the floor. When I bang a wooden spoon on this saucepan it makes a noise. Lots of noise!

Cause and effect is how children learn to control and interact with their environment, and understanding cause and effect helps to develop problem solving skills. With that in mind, I created this fun activity for my three year old son, R, to give him a visual understanding of how sound is created when he bangs a drum.

This experiment was so much fun! It took only minutes to put together, we made lots of noise, quite a bit of mess, and we learned quite a lot as well!

Supplies Needed To Teach Kids How Sound Is Made

Supplies for how sound is made experiment- cans, bowl, tub, corn meal, beans, rice, marbles, rubber bands, balloons, cellophane on white background- kids activities blog — You’ll need a number of different items for this how is sound made experiment like: balloons, rubber bands, cellophane, rice, corn meal, beans, marbles, cans, tubs, and a bowl.

Containers of various sizes (empty tin cans and bowls work well)
Chopsticks or wooden spoons to act as drumsticks
Cellophane paper and extra large balloons for the drumskins
Various materials to bounce on the drums (we used rice, flour, dried beans and marbles)
Rubber bands
Pair of scissors

Directions To Learn How Sound Is Made

How sound is made step 1- grab your drum sticks, marbles, and rice and have everything on hand- kids activities blog — Grab your items and get read to learn about sound waves and air molecules!

Let’s first put the activity together and then spend time not only having fun, but learning. But first:

Make Your Drums

Step 1

Using the scissors, cut the end off the balloon (the part you would blow into).

Step 2

Now stretch the balloon over your chosen container and you’re done! Instant drum.

Step 3

For your next drum, cut the cellophane paper to fit over one of your other containers and secure with a rubber band. There! Two drums made in minutes.

Setting Up Your Experiment

Set up your experiment. Add various items such as:

Rice
Dried beans
Marbles
Beads
Fish Rocks
Confetti
Sprinkles

To the top of each drum. Place it as closely as you can to the middle.

Play And Learn With Your How Sound Is Made Experiment

Play!

Now start banging those drums and watch the rice, beans and marbles fly all over the place!

How Sound Is Made Drum Experiment Explanation

How sound is made collage- hitting drum with rice on it, marbles, beans, and beads on bowls and cans- kids activities blog — You can put so many different things on top of your drums to learn how sound is made.

You’ll see that when you hit the drum the stuff on the drum behaves very similarly to air molecules when you hit your drum. The skin vibrates and will make the items on the drum dance.

When air molecules vibrates against one another sound wave are formed and that is how sound is made!

Variations On This Drum and Sound Experiment

Did you know you can change the sound and volume of this experiment? You can and it is so easy!

1. Changing Pitch Of The Drum

The pitch of the drum is dependent on how tight the skin of the drum is. If you have a tight skin on your drum, it will have a higher pitched noise. The looser the skin, but more low the noise will be.

2. Changing Sound Of The Drum

Sound is also dependent on the amount of air inside of the drum. The more air inside your drum the lower notes you will have. The less air inside your drum the higher notes you will have.

3. Changing Volume Of The Drum

Volume of your drum is dependent on the size of vibrations. If you hit the drum hard (be careful not to break your drum) you will have a loud sound. If you hit your drum softly, you will have a quieter sound.

More Experiments To Try With This How Sound Is Made Drum Activity

This was great fun and there were plenty of giggles and shouts as we played. You could extend the learning potential of this activity by asking questions such as:

Which drum surface causes the objects on top to bounce the highest?
Which drum surface causes the objects on top to bounce for the longest time?
Which objects have the most bounce?
How are the results affected if you bang your drumstick softly or more heavily?

How Sound Is Made Experiment

Learn how sound is made with this experiment using very basic items like balloons, cans, rubber bands, and things like rice and beans. It's an easy experiment that is fun and educational.

Materials

Containers of various sizes (empty tin cans and bowls work well)
Chopsticks or wooden spoons to act as drumsticks
Cellophane paper and extra large balloons for the drumskins
Various materials to bounce on the drums (we used rice, flour, dried beans and marbles)
Rubber bands
Pair of scissors

Instructions

Using the scissors, cut the end off the balloon (the part you would blow into).
Now stretch the balloon over your chosen container and you’re done! Instant drum.
For your next drum, cut the cellophane paper to fit over one of your other containers and secure with a rubber band.
Place items towards the middle of the drum like rice, confetti, marbles, sprinkles, etc.
Start banging those drums with sticks and watch as the items go everywhere, but also hit each other.