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Sound activities for toddlers


10 Sensational Sound Activities for Preschoolers

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I love these fun ways to explore sound with kids! Fantastic hands-on learning. 10 sensational sound activities for preschoolers. Young children are fascinated by the senses. Sight and touch are easy to explore; sound requires a little bit more thought. These activities help kids notice, explore, and think about the sense of sound.

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This post started when Anna took some glitter and sequins Craft Project Ideas sent us and used them to create a simple sound game. I decided to share her activity along with nine other favorite ways to explore sound with kids.

Sound Activity #1: Guess the Sound

This is the game Anna came up with! She used paper plates and sequins, glitter, and beads, but you can use anything. Dried beans, rice, and pasta are three options that you can find in the kitchen – you can even still cook them after this activity!

Here’s a video of Anna’s game in action. If you are looking for a more durable version of this game, try our DIY maracas!

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Sound Activity #2: Shaker Eggs

DIY shaker eggs are a favorite from this blog! Take those leftover plastic Easter eggs and fill them with anything you like.

Sound Activity #3: Exploring Pitch

What makes a musical note higher or lower? Try these pitch activities to find out!

Sound Activity #4: Junk Jam Music

I love that this activity gets the kids outside! Mosswood Connections has instructions to create your own junk jam center in your backyard.

Sound Activity #5: Make a Kazoo

Kazoos are easy to make and fun to use! Buggy and Buddy has fun instructions on how to make your own kazoo.

Sound Activity #6: Make a Rain Stick

Rain sticks are delightful! I especially love this rain stick from Rhythms of Play, because you can see how it works!

Sound Activity #7: Wind Chimes

Wind chimes are an easy way to get kids curious about sound! Here is a beautiful DIY wind chime you can hang on your wall. Amazon has several fun wind chime sets. Tuned sets are especially pleasing to listen to.

Sound Activity #8: Go on a Music Field Trip

We are very lucky because our local community often has concerts that are just for preschoolers! Buggy and Buddy has a great printable for sound walks.

Sound Activity #9: Sound Waves Experiment

Edventures with kids has a fantastic science of sound waves experiment your kids will love. All you need is a ruler, spoons, and a little yarn. Buggy and Buddy has a similar sound experiment using a wire hanger and string.

Sound Activity #10: Play with Music

Music is one of the most exciting ways to explore sound with kids! This post full of musical activities for toddlers is a great starting point. This video from Nancy Kopman is an adorable introduction to harmony for kids.

Did you know that music is also a great parenting tool? I’m a music geek, but my non-musician friend Amanda over at The Educators’ Spin On It agrees. She shares some tips any parents can use to incorporate music into everyday parenting.

Do you have any favorite sound activities for preschoolers that we should try? Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram – I would love to see photos of this activity if you try it with your kids! 

MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne lives is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

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16 Fun Sense of Hearing Activities for Preschoolers

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These sense of hearing activities will help you explore the senses with children in a fun and interesting way.

Whether you are simply looking for some sensory development ideas or trying to teach the concept of senses through a preschool theme, these ideas are a great starting point.

How do you teach sense of hearing to preschoolers? The following 16 activities are like “music to your ears” when it comes time to plan!

1. Guess That Sound

Show children a variety of small objects: coins, sand, dry macaroni, paperclips, cotton balls and dry rice. 

Give them a chance to manipulate small buckets of these objects. Then, using plastic hollow eggs or balls, fill two of each with those same objects. 

Get the kids to shake them and try to find the eggs with matching sounds, also attempting to name which objects they contain.

2. Match That Tone

Give children time to explore with play xylophones and mallets. 

After they become familiar with how they work, face the children and set up a barrier between you. Play one note/tone at a time and challenge the kids to find the same note to play on their own xylophones.

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3. Learn about Sign Language

Share picture books with children from the Moses Goes to series by Isaac Millman. 

The little boy, Moses, is deaf and communicates with his deaf friends through American Sign Language. 

Kids can learn the signs for many words and ideas.

4. Learn about Hearing Aids

Share the picture book Gracie’s Ears by Debbie Blackington (watch it here on YouTube). 

This rhyming story follows a little girl who is hearing challenged as she is fitted for hearing aids and then experiences the wonders of hearing everything around her.

5. Go on a Hearing Hike

Set out on a hike in the park, neighbourhood or garden. 

Challenge the children to listen for and name the sounds they hear: birds singing, cars driving past, an airplane moving across the sky, a fire engine in the distance, or a train chugging along the tracks.  

Especially if the source is something they cannot see, encourage kids to use describing words that explain the sounds they hear.

6. Noise Detectives

Get kids to wear blindfolds or keep their eyes shut tightly. Make various noises with things around the house or classroom, and they can guess what is making those sounds. 

Ideas include:

  • running water into a pot
  • zipping a jacket
  • opening and closing a door
  • placing toys in baskets
  • picking up keys
  • closing the window blinds.

7. Loud and Soft

Using catalogues and magazines with plenty of pictures, ask kids to cut or tear out photos of things that make noise. 

After each child has collected examples, make a poster with the word “loud” on one side and “soft” on the other. 

Decide as a group in which category each picture’s sound fits the best and have the children help to tape or glue them in that position.

8. Drum Parade

Marching to music, children beat on toy drums or those made from various saved containers.  

Challenge them to find things around the room or home to use as drumsticks to make different types of sounds, such as:

  • cardboard tubes
  • pipe cleaners
  • drinking straws
  • plastic spoons 

Which sounds are the loudest or softest? Which sounds did they like the best?

9. Dance to the Beat

Show children how to listen to various music clips and then move/dance in a matching fashion: slow, fast, floating, sleepy, jazzy, spooky, and ballet-like. 

Then, play short pieces of music for the kids to hear and react with their own matching responses to the various beats.

10. Play Telephone

Whisper a word or short phrase into one child’s ear, who repeats it to the next child in line. This continues until the last person who has heard the message says it aloud. 

The kids are often surprised to discover that the message has been misunderstood and changed!

Here are 100 Telephone Game phrases to try.

11. Science of Sound

How do you explain hearing to a child? Begin with exploring the concept of sound!

Sounds All Around: the Science of How Sound Works by Susan Hughes explains the vibration of sound to young kids and shows how that relates to our hearing.

12. Make Musical Instruments

For a fun sense of hearing arts and crafts project, offer a variety of loose parts for kids to make their own musical instruments. 

For example, save those paper towel cardboard rolls and have the kids cover them with shiny aluminium foil, then decorate with coloured paper or tissue paper snippets. 

Children can also decorate plain paper plates cut in half with markers, crayons or coloured paper. Tape two together, filling with dried peas, beans, or rice before the last opening is secured to make maracas. 

Search the web for ideas of other fun handmade instruments.

13. Who Said Moo?

Get children to practise listening to animal sounds by making one sound at a time and asking them to guess who makes that noise.

Include pet sounds, neighbourhood animals, creatures of the forest, animals of the jungle, and even some ocean animals that make noises. 

14. I Hear with My Little Ear

I Hear with My Little Ear is a variation of “I Spy with My Little Eye” that gives children a chance to think about different kinds of sounds.  

Some sounds are loud, soft, fast, sad, or even scary!

15. Listener Copy Cats

Clap or beat out a simple rhythm pattern for the children who are listening carefully. Challenge them to copy that very same rhythm. 

The kids can then take turns being “the leader” for the other kids to copy.

16. Draw Listening Pictures

Learning to be an attentive listener is an important aspect of hearing for young children. 

Give each child a blank sheet of paper with a pencil. Tell a story that includes directions for what they should draw on their papers, one step at a time. 

They can colour at the end after their basic pictures are drawn.

Here are some listen-and-draw ideas to get you started.

Beyond hearing and auditory perception, a focus on each of the following is crucial to kids’ sensory development, either through planned activities or guided sensory play.

Check out the fun for each of these areas:

  • Sight
  • Touch
  • Smell
  • Taste
  • Balance (vestibular)
  • Body awareness (proprioception)

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Sound games for children 2-3 years old

It is easier to prevent a lack of sound pronunciation than to eliminate it at an older age, as the child quickly gets used to speaking incorrectly.

The formation of the correct pronunciation of sounds in words and phrases depends on the clarification and consolidation of their pronunciation in an isolated form or in simple sound combinations.

Work should begin with the development of simple sounds that children already know how to pronounce clearly, since along with the development of articulation, preparation for the assimilation of more complex sounds will take place. Next comes the consolidation of the pronunciation of sounds in words - while you need to pay attention to the fact that the child learns to speak them clearly and distinctly.

Sound "A"


- Recall with your child the fairy tale "Ryaba the Hen" and invite the child to show how the grandfather and grandmother cried ("A-a-a").
- Show the baby a picture of a goose and ask him to imitate how the goose “says” (“Ga-ga”), then show the picture of a frog, have the baby show you how it croaks (“Qua-qua”). Alternate the displayed pictures.

U sound


- Spread your arms out to the sides with your child to represent airplanes. Shake your “wings”, making the humming sound of an airplane: “Woo-oo-oo-oo.”


- Show your child three toys (or pictures): a cow, an owl, and a cuckoo. Ask to voice these animals.

"I" sound


- You and your child are horses. "Jump" around the room, making the sound "I-i-i, I-i-i, I-i-i. "
- Now play donkeys. Let the kid depict how the donkey “says” (“Eeyore”).
- Show the child pictures of a chicken and a mouse and have them imitate their voices (“Pee-pee-pee”).

O sound


- Show a child a doll with a bandaged cheek and say that her teeth hurt: “Oh-oh-oh.” Ask your child to repeat the sound.
- Ask your child how the hen "talks". Depict chickens with your child (flap your “wings”, walk around the room), saying: “Ko-ko-ko”.

Sound "Y"


- Depicting angry lions: “Y-y-y”.


- Depicting a steamboat with a palm protruding upwards. The steamer floats on the river: “Y-y-s” (we move our hand on the table).

E


- Invite your child to laugh silently: “Eeeee. ”


- Sing the echo song with your baby: "Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh."


- You show the child either a picture of a goat or a lamb, and the child says: “Meee” or “Beee.”

Sounds "M" and "M'". (a comma above indicates a soft pronunciation of the sound, as, for example, in the word "ball")


- You will be a cow and the child will be a kitten. You must talk to each other in the language of your animals. You say: "Mu", - the child answers you: "Meow", - etc. Then switch roles and resume the "dialogue".


- Make small sketches for the baby of objects that begin with the sound "M" or "M'": a car, a raspberry, a fly agaric, a fly, soap, milk and a windmill, a ball, honey, a bear, etc..

Sounds "H" and "H'"


- You and your child pretend to ride a horse and shout: "But, but!"


- Show the child pictures with various images and call them in chorus: "Nose", "Knife", "Sock", - and also: "Sky", "Thread", - etc. Then point to the picture and ask the child what he sees in it.

Sounds "P" and "P'"


- Tell your child a story and have them repeat the highlighted words after you. “The hen decided to bake pies . She kneaded the dough and set it to rise. How does the dough puff? "Puff - puff." Then chickens came running and began to ask for water. How do chickens ask for water? "Pee-pee." In the meantime, the chicken poured water for the chickens - the dough ran away.


- Invite the child to sing the chick's song, "Pee-pee-pee."

Sounds "B" and "B'"


- We clap our lips and sing: "Ba-ba-ba, bo-bo-bo."
- Make it look like you are driving cars with your baby. And when you are in danger of crashing, beep to each other: "Beep."

Sounds "T" and "T'"


- Say: "Knock-knock-knock" - and ask the baby who knocks like that. If the child says it's a hammer, show him a pre-prepared hammer toy. If he says that it is a woodpecker, show a toy or a picture of a woodpecker.

Again say: “Knock-knock-knock”, and ask: “Who is knocking now?”. In case of difficulty, help the baby with leading questions. You can play such a game, you will say “knock-knock-knock”, and the child will guess who or what was knocking. There is no correct answer in this game - both a hammer and a woodpecker can knock here. Next time, you can add a new sound: "Tick-tock" (clock), - and ask where such a sound can come from.

Sounds "D" and "D'"


- Put a bell and a pipe in front of the baby on the table. Ring the bells and say that the bell is ringing: "Ding, ding." Then blow into the pipe and say that the pipe is blowing: "Doo-doo." You will say: "Ding-ding" - or: "Doo-doo" - and the child will play the appropriate musical instrument. Then switch roles.


- Draw objects for your child that begin with the sounds "D" or "D'": a house with smoke from a chimney, a girl, a sofa, a melon, a tree, a dinosaur, etc.

Sounds "K" and "K'"


- Place two pictures of a hen, a rooster and a cuckoo in front of the child. Ask who says: "Ko-ko"? And who says: "Ku-ka-re-ku"? And who: "Ku-ku"? Compete who will sing the song of the rooster louder or who will “cuckle” whom.


- Ask your child to name what is shown in the pictures: a cat, a horse, a cube, a doll, skates, a goat, a whale, a kiwi, a cap, a tassel.

Sounds "G" and "G'"


- Ask the child: "What do geese say?" ("ha-ha-ha"), "What do doves say?" ("Goo-goo-goo"). Invite the child to become a gosling, and you will be a dove. If you show a picture of a goose, then the child says: "Ga-ha-ha", - if the picture of a dove, then you say: "Guu-guu-guu", - or: "Gru-gru-gru". (The child, of course, will only get the first option - “goo-goo-goo”.) Then you can switch roles.


- Tell the child the words and if they begin with the sound "G" or "G'", let him clap his hands. For example: mountain, caterpillar, goose, umbrella, guitar, garden, stork, gnome. It is desirable that the baby repeats the words after you.

Sounds "X" and "X'"


- Ask the child how the mouse laughs (“hee hee hee”). How does the clown laugh? ("ho-ho-ho"). How does the bear laugh? ("ha-ha-ha").


- Ask the baby to repeat the phrase after you: "Ha-ha-ha, you are far from the rooster" (according to K. Chukovsky).


- Arrange the cubes on the table. Take one, drop it on the floor and say "Bang!". Invite your child to follow your example. You can alternate sounds, saying “bang”, then “bang”.

Sounds "Ф" and "Ф'"


- Show a child a toy hedgehog and ask: “How does a hedgehog snort?” (“Ffff”) Let the child sound out the hedgehog several times.0003


- Play a scene in front of your child. Take a toy dog ​​and place various items on the table: perfume, soap, a kitten, a toy car, a pyramid, a ball, etc. Say that the dog will run around the table, but she is not allowed to sniff all these objects. Therefore, as soon as the baby notices that she wants to get closer to one of them, he should tell her: “Fu!”.

"B" and "B'" sounds


- Ask a child how the wind howls? Depict its sound ("V-v-v").


- Ask your child to name the images in the pictures: wolf, broom, cotton wool, fork, etc. 57 exercises to start speech in babies .

Today I will focus on specific exercises that help start speech and improve sound pronunciation without the participation of specialists.

At an early age, speech is characterized by a rather poor vocabulary, the use of light words, the absence or distortion of individual sounds.

The reason is the insufficiently developed speech apparatus due to age and weak speech exhalation.

To solve most of these problems, there is a large arsenal of developmental exercises, games and techniques.

Breathing game exercises aimed at training speech exhalation

  • Blowing on pieces of paper napkin, cotton wool, through a straw into the water - blowing bubbles
  • Blowing out the candles - of course, under the strict supervision of adults
  • We make manuals on strings - paper butterflies, clouds, snowflakes, and blow on them
  • We launch boats with paper sails from plastic cups into a bowl of water and blow into the sails
  • We show the "breeze" - we blow on each other
  • We blow off feathers, ping-pong balls from the surface
  • We blow through a straw into a bottle covered with a cap with foam balls.

Articulation exercises for the development and strengthening of the speech apparatus

  1. Games with different sounds: clatter like a horse, sniff like a hedgehog, smack - kiss
  2. Develop articulatory muscles:
    • Blow bubble with cheeks, pop with palms
    • Show tongue - tease / tongue looked out of the mouth and hid back
    • Showing teeth - " who has teeth?!"
    • "We lap milk" like a cat.
  1. Onomatopoeia with repetitions - useful to do at different tempos:

How does the car hum? Bi-bi-bi!
How does a cow moo? Moo-moo-moo!
How does the drum beat? Ta-ta-ta!
How does mother sing a song? La-la-la!
How does a hen eat grain? Key-key-key!
How does the pipe blow? Doo-doo-doo!

Musical games that stimulate the start of speech

When children sing sounds, syllables and words, it is easier for them to speak.

  1. Games with children's musical instruments, where the sounds are duplicated by the word:

Knock-knock-knock! (Claves, spoons, drum)
La-la-la! (Metalphone)
Ding-ding! (Bell)
How-drip-drip ! (Triangle)
Boom boom boom! (Tambourine)

2. Onomatopoeic songs “Grandmother Natalia had 7 ducklings”, “Geese-geese”, “We have a horse Igogoshka”, “Kva-kva, so the frog says”.

3. Song articulation warm-ups by E. Zheleznova “And we will say it together with mom”, “Come on, repeat it.”

4. Tapping simple words and names on a tambourine.

5. Games with successive transmission of musical instruments in a circle "NA!" "GIVE!".

6. Dances with simple words duplicating movements:

Effective games with didactic material that increase the passive vocabulary

  1. Hide and seek toys under a handkerchief
  2. GIVE! (According to the teacher's instructions, the child gives a toy of a given color, shape or size)
  3. SHOW! (The teacher introduces the new concept by showing it in the picture, then, following the teacher’s instructions, the children look for the demonstrated object on their handouts and show it with their finger or cover it with their palm)
  4. Sort by color, shape or size (For example, we collect red balloons for Mishka, and yellow ones for Bunny).
  5. Looking for hidden figurines (animals, toys, dishes, gossips of different colors) in the sensory basin - the child finds, the adult names.

Finger massage and finger games

Many educators like to say: “Speech is at your fingertips!”

In the seventies of the XX century, the physiologist Marionella Maksimovna Koltsova conducted research in an orphanage. She proved that in the experimental group of children with whom exercises for the development of fine motor skills were carried out, speech development was significantly higher than in children with whom such classes were not carried out.

Yes, but only in part. Most modern neurologists and speech therapists tend to think that it was not the exercises themselves that were the determining factor in the development of speech, but the direct communication of the teacher with the children contributed to the development of speech in the children under study.

In addition, the speech centers, which are in close proximity to the motor centers in the brain, mature by 3-4 years. Therefore, it is not worth stimulating them, hoping only for the development of fine motor skills at an early age.

However, it is useful and necessary to develop the muscles of the fingers with the help of soft massage (“Ladushki”, “Magpie-Crow”), as well as to train dexterity through the simplest movements.

As I mentioned in a previous article, children with speech disorders very often have impaired coordination of movements, muscle clamps, and motor awkwardness. Exercises to rhythmic verses or singing, relaxation and vice versa movements with fingers help prepare the child for motor planning, train muscle tone, help the child experience an emotional response in exercises.

Games for the development of auditory perception

Undeveloped auditory perception affects the development of speech. The child is not able to listen and hear attentively and with concentration and, accordingly, does not reproduce sounds well. If a child distinguishes non-speech sounds well, phonemic hearing (the ability to distinguish speech sounds) will develop automatically.

Games for the development of auditory perception:

Tasty games

  • Licking sponges - jam, honey
  • We stick out the tongue - take a berry, candy, and put a berry / candy into the mouth on the tongue
  • We lick the lollipop or cockerel on a stick - we reach for it with the tongue up, down, right, left
  • Dip the tip of the tongue into sugar or decorative sweet sprinkling and try, according to the instructions, to convey on the tongue to the mouth, the inside of the cheeks, the palate
  • Roll a cherry or a round dragee inside the mouth
  • We pull the teeth of marmalade worms, with sponges we collect the worm in the mouth
  • Using the tongue to make different paths on a tray of powdered sugar
  • We take out the previously stuck pieces of sweet sticks from an apple or orange.

"Conscious motor planning" training

Motor planning is the ability to imagine, organize and carry out a sequence of unfamiliar actions.

Most children with speech disorders have motor planning deficits.

The process of sound pronunciation requires complex motor planning from the child. The child must consciously control the movements of the articulatory apparatus until the pronunciation of certain sounds becomes a skill.

What is needed to develop motor planning skills?

For effective training of motor planning, it is necessary to include in each developmental lesson exercises with unusual motor actions that are not automated in children and are performed according to the teacher's instructions.

For example: