Today we’re going to learn how to listen.

“Everyone find a space on the floor and lie down”

The second session began with John teaching the children breathing and listening techniques.

“Everyone breathe in … now out … breathe in and out”

The children found this extremely calming, they were now ready to listen.

John instructed us to listen out for any sounds that we could hear inside and outside of the classroom.

4-5 minutes of silence

“What could you hear?”

People chatting in the next room, birds chirping, people breathing, high-heel shoes walking out the corridor, the buzzing of the whiteboard, the phone ringing in the P7 room, the hum of the lights, shuffling of shoes, the trees rustling, the wind howling, the rain on the windows ….

“How could you tell it that the sound was high-heel shoes? Can you describe the sound?

It went clip clop … the sound was spaced apart … it sounded like my Mum’s shoes in the kitchen.

How could you make that sound in the classroom?

???????????? I know, you could use the legs of the chair on the hard floor by the sink! Rock the legs back and forth!

“How could you tell that people were talking in the next room? Can you described the sound?”

I couldn’t make out any words but I know that sound … it sounded like this (cue hand on mouth and a murmuring sound)

“Who heard the buzzing sound?”

I did, it sounded like a bee … buuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

John was really getting the children to think about the different sounds that they heard.

After lunch, the children were able to tell John about the different sounds that they heard in the play ground.

Children shouting/talking/playing, footballs bouncing, the wind rustling the tree leaves, doors opening and closing, bells ringing

John spoke to us about how some of these sounds were high and other sounds were low.

We discussed how we could draw a sound and John demonstrated by drawing us one of the sounds from our list.

Is it a bird? Is it the buzzing whiteboard? Is it the ball bouncing? Is it people talking in the playground? Yes!!

It looks like lots of speech bubbles

John then challenged us to draw him a sound and he had to guess. We thought about the marks we were making, the colours we were using, the shapes we were drawing.

The children enjoyed the session and are looking forward to next week!