We began with the children recounting the animal sounds that they had heard in the Zoo from the previous session. Following on from our last session the children are beginning to use their imaginations to illustrate different sounds using either symbols or pictures.
The children list and demonstrate the various sounds for John and myself. The children were able to tell John, how the lion sound was a “low rumbling sound” or a “loud roar”; how the elephants made noises through their trunks describing it as a “long sound that might start quietly and get louder.” Curtis described the sound the bearded dragon made, saying “it sounds like a cracking sound. Its mouth was making funny shapes.” Curtis drew a cracked line to illustrate the breaded dragon sound.
Rhys described the sound a toucan made, “it sounded like it was saying ‘greee, gree, gree.’ Rhys drew a loop with ‘greee’ sound travelling around it. Daniel drew a beak shape to illustrate the sound of the toucan, “it is like it’s opening its beak.” Oscar chose to draw a series of different sized circles because he thought “it is like its mouth is opening, the sound starts quiet (the small circle) and gets louder (bigger circles). Finn described the toucan sound as a ‘rrrreerrr’ , drawing the sound as a zig zagging.
After much discussion we decided that the animals and sounds that we liked as a groups were: a gorilla, snake, lion, parrot, elephant and Prairie dog, We then decided to give symbols to each animal sound
- Gorilla – 0
- Snake – a wavy line
- Prairie dog – paw print
- Lion – a star
- Parrot – a beak
- Elephant – trunk shaped
After testing us on whether we could remember the different symbols.
John questioned the children:
- ‘What might a large star mean?’ à Kevin “a loud roar from a lion”
- ‘What would a small wavy line mean?’ à Rhys “a snake quietly hissing”
- ‘What would a small star, large paw print, big 0 mean?’ à “a low roar, then a loud roar than a big gorilla ooh ooh’
Composing and performing
After a quick revision of the symbols and sounds, we were then set the task of creating a ‘Journey through the Rainforest.’
The children working in groups to compose their journey through the Rainforest
Corey explaining his journey through the rainforest graphical score to John. He created a piece in which the sounds were arranged in a circle, so that it could be repeated.
The children in groups had to create a graphic score using our symbols, remembering to use different sizes to represent a quiet or a loud sound. The children set about working together to create their soundscape. The children practice the sounds in their groups, some adding actions to help with their performances. Finally when ready we perform for John, using the sounds and symbols. It was fantastic to see the all the children itching to perform for John. They really got into the spirit of the performance adding actions and varying their sounds from quiet to loud.
A group performing their graphic score for the class and John.
Another group performing their score for John and the class.
