Ears Help Us Hear Loud and Quiet Sounds- Lesson 6

manna Moment

Whether its Hannah's whispered prayers for a child (1 Samuel 1:9-14) or Joshua's blasting trumpets at Jericho (Joshua 6: 2-16), God can hear and respond with power.

overview

The third gift we are going to use to explore God's creation is our sense of hearing.  This week we'll explore loud and quiet sounds using our sense of hearing.

opening activity:  Soft sounds, Loud sounds

Using the pencils in class, I had the students 'drum' softly and then crescendo into fortissimo.  We learned some musical dynamics as we drummed on the table.

storytime

The Listening Walk by Paul Showers and Aliki is a story about a young girl and her father taking their dog for a walk.  As she walks, she notices different kinds of loud and soft sounds.

Here is a listening guide for this book.  As we read through the book the students can follow along, check the boxes that they hear from the story and trace a key word to remember.

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As I read to the students, I brought in a hard soled shoe to make noises on a piece of wood while I was reading.  I brought in some sandpaper to scratch to mimic the sound of Major's toenails on the sidewalk.  If I had a bicycle bell, I would have brought that sound in as well.  This was a great interactive book.

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At the close of the book, it asked us to close our eyes and just 'listen'.  So these kids were closing their mouths and just having their ears open to listen to the different sounds of the room.  If all of them were quiet at the same time, you could only hear the air conditioning blowing.

Learning the anatomy of the ear

Sounds travel from its source to our ears through vibrations.  God made our ears to be able to sense these vibrations as sound.  Having students turn to page 33 in their guidebook, there is a mat with the different parts of the ear.  They are to place the colored pieces of the ear on the mat and identify the different parts of the ear.
Using this, we can trace the path of sound as it goes through our ears.

Romans 10:17-"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ."

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As much as he looks like he is He-Man, he is really holding up the Middle Ear.  I asked the students to hold up the parts of the ear as I called them out.  He did great!!

Blind fold maze

In 1 Samuel 3, Eli, the priest, teaches Samuel how to recognize and respond to hearing God's voice. 
​Putting our ears to work, I set up an obstacle course with chairs in the classroom.  After a crash course in their Left and Rights, I had students line up.  One student was blindfolded while I guided the students through the maze.  The other students had to be quiet so that the blindfolded student could hear me clearly.  THEN, some of the kids would call out directions but they weren't my directions and I had to remind the student blindfolded to only follow my voice.  This reminds me of our God.  He tells us the path we should take but the world is often yelling at us to take different paths.  We need to make sure we are focused on our God's voice and no one else's.

​Another fun game to play is Simon Says to help them practice their listening skills.