Sound.

Today was Fun Club and the topic was Sound, and there were various activities in various parts of the building going on for various age groups!  Some of which I know about, but I was ensconced in a corridor doing my activity while K & M moved around having a go at various things.

Activities included:
Making plastic cup and string telephones - both K & M had a go
Making musical instruments - K made a plucking instrument with a margarine tub and elastic bands
Experimenting with making different notes using glasses, milk bottles, chop sticks and water - both girls had a go at this.  When tapping a glass with a chopstick the note gets lower when water is added, but blowing across the top of a bottle the note gets higher when the bottle is fuller.
Playing instruments along with a story and songs
Indentifying different sounds on a cd - M joined in with this one
Games finding where sounds were coming from and how far away they are - I think both girls had a go
Using people and some objects to make a model of a human ear - M watched as there were more people than needed in the group at the time

I was doing the plastic cup and string telephones, with various groups of about 4-9 year olds.  We talked about 'old fashioned' telephones, of the sort that had to be plugged into the wall, how sound travels in waves, of the sort that moves along a slinky if you move the end forwards and backwards.  We had a go with the phones and discovered that you can use them round corners if you use two and have an 'exchange' with an operator in the middle holding the cups together!

When it came time for lunch, K had disappeared and I found her with a model of an ear and she didn't come to eat until she had successfully put it back together 10-15 minutes later.

When we got home I got out our 'body books' to have a look at the parts about hearing and ears and both K & M did have a bit of a look.  It was clear from some of M's comments that she had grasped quite a lot from the making a model of an ear, telling me about the 3 little bones, although she couldn't quite remember all of the names, she knew one was the hammer and told me one of the others was something like the 'spatula'!

We had another chapter of Harry Potter and would usually have had korfball this evening, but both K & M were complaining of feeling sick and didn't protest when I suggested not going, which given they both really enjoy it confirmed this decision for me.  Instead we watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone again while they did some sewing and M also got the beads out and made herself a necklace.

Finally, in other news, M has been in the wars somewhat lately.  She's one for getting bumps, bruises, scrapes etc anyway but outdid herself on Sunday and is still in some discomfort (she even limps when she remembers!) from this...