Sounds Around

Stop what you are doing for a minute – now close your eyes and listen. What do you hear? Our ears are constantly being bombarded with sound, most of which we “tune out”. Our modern way of life produces a large amount of sound or noise - so much so that it is often referred to as “noise pollution”. Use Project Learning Tree’s “Sounds Around” to explore sound. Learn to “tune in” to the sounds of your environment, whether you’re on a crowded city street or a quite woodland trail. Then apply what you have learned to help identify and lessen local noise pollution problems.

Young Child Extension
Take young children outside to the schoolyard, backyard or local park. Have them close their eyes and listen. What do they hear? Talk about what they hear. Talk about how we use our ears to hear. When you get back to classroom draw pictures of the different things that they heard, or tell each other stories about what they heard.

Book List

Grades PreK-2
Baylor, B. and P. Parnall. 1997. The Other Way to Listen. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Becker, B. and B. Huang. 1995. The Quiet Way Home. Holt, Henry, and Company
Bentley, D., H. Cahoon, and M. Gerth. 2004. Buzz-Buzz, Busy Bees. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Brown, M.W. and L. McCue. 2002. Bunny’s Noisy Book. Hyperion Books for Children.
Carle, E. and Jr. Martin, B. 1997. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? Henry Holt and Co.
Graff, N.P. and G.B. Karas. 1998. In the Hush of the Evening. HarperCollins Publishers.
Martin, Jr., B. and J. Endicott. 1988. Listen to the Rain. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.
Pledger, M. 2007. Sounds of the Wild: Nightime. Silver Dolphin Books.
Seuss, Dr. 1954. Horton Hears a Who. Random House Children's Books.
Showers, P. and Aliki. 1993. The Listening Walk. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Grades 3-5
Baylor, B. and P. Parnall. 1997. The Other Way to Listen. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Becker, B. and B. Huang. 1995. The Quiet Way Home. Holt, Henry, and Company
Graff, N.P. and G.B. Karas. 1998. In the Hush of the Evening. HarperCollins Publishers.
Inseth, Z. 1998. Noise Pollution. Child’s World, Inc.
Martin, Jr., B. and J. Endicott. 1988. Listen to the Rain. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.
Showers, P. and Aliki. 1993. The Listening Walk. HarperCollins Children's Books.
Seuss, Dr. 1954. Horton Hears a Who. Random House Children's Books.

Grades 6-8
Baylor, B. and P. Parnall. 1997. The Other Way to Listen. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Finney, S. 1984. Noise Pollution. Scholastic Library Publishing.
Grey, J. 1975. Noise, Noise, Noise. Westminster John Knox Press.
Inseth, Z. 1998. Noise Pollution. Child’s World, Inc.

Grades 9-12
Bijsterveld, K. 2008. Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century. MIT Press.
Hughes, HC. 1999. Sensory Exotica: A World Beyond Human Experience. MIT Press.
Keizer, G. 2010. The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise. PublicAffairs.
Kosko, B. 2006. Noise. Penguin Group Inc (USA).
Prochnik, G. 2010. In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise. Knopf Doubleday Publishing.