Let's make a guitar!

We revisited our exploration into sound this morning. We continue to notice the children making sounds using different materials in the classroom, on the playscape, and pretty much anywhere we go! The children are excited about the shoeboxes that were donated and wanted to get to work on making them into guitars! We began working on a couple of the shoeboxes today!

I asked the kids to look at the box and think about how it needs to transform. We looked at a picture of a real guitar and they noticed that the guitar has "strings, a bottom part, a long top, and a hole in the middle." I then asked the kids, "what do we need to make our own guitar?"

WM said, "we need strings."

JS said, "it's a square, can it be a square?" -we decided that it could-

AG said, "it needs strings to make different noises."

IR said, "we can use a paper towel roll for the top." -we had looked up ways to make a homemade guitar in the past and she remembered what we saw!-

MM said, "we will need to glue it and we need some scissors."

We tested out the "string" (we used rubber bands) to see how it sounded with the lid on the box without a hole, then to see how it sounded without the entire lid, and then how it sounded with a hole in the box. In the video below WM tests to see how it sounds on the lid without a hole in it. We decided that it wasn't a "good guitar sound" and that we should cut the hole in it!

We tested the sound of the rubber band without the lid entirely. This made a lot of sound and the kids liked it but they wanted to try the lid with a hole in it too.

We loved testing it with the hole in the lid and it was definitely our favorite way to make a guitar!

WM said, "it makes a better sound with the hole."

JS said, "I think it's because the sound gets trapped inside."

IR said, "it's not so loud."

These two friends tested out how the guitar sounds if you play it slow versus if you play it fast.

BP said, "it's louder when it's fast! I like doing it fast."

On the second box we put different sized rubber bands to see if they would make different sounds. AD took her time and plucked each rubber band. She said, "listen, the little on is the baby sound, the middle one is the mommy sound, and the big one is the daddy sound." A very interesting take on sound! We love how the children's minds work. We will continue to work on our sound investigation and keep you updated on our progress with our guitars!

Be Happy, Be Kind