Sounds of Transportation Through Onomatopoeia and Instruments

We're inquiring about transportation through Music!  The Grade Two students have been "exploring sound as a means of expressing their own imaginative ideas about transportation." (PYP music curriculum)

To inspire us, students started by learning the song "I Have a Car," an American camp song about a Model T Ford.  This showed students how transportation has changed over time.  Think about the kinds of sounds that your car makes.

I Have a Car

I have a car.  It's made of tin.

Nobody knows what shape it's in.

It has four wheels and a rumble seat.

Hear us chugging down the street.

Honk! Honk! Rattle! Rattle! Rattle! Crash! Beep! Beep!

Honk! Honk! Rattle! Rattle! Rattle! Crash! Beep! Beep!

Honk! Honk! Rattle! Rattle! Rattle! Crash! Beep! Beep!

Honk! Honk! 

Students made a dance to express the song.  Students worked in groups of four to create instrumentation.  They brainstormed their choices about car sounds by exploring various instrument sounds from the four different instrument families--drums, woods, shakers/ scrapers, and metals.

Then they chose an instrument for their sound words--honk, rattle, crash, beep.  Then each group practiced using the rhythm of the words.  They are continuing to improve and refine this.

Honk! Honk! Rattle! Rattle! Rattle! Crash! Beep! Beep!

What do you notice about their choices?  You can see creativity at work with the many different possibilities students generated. Click on these super short videos to see them.

How are their choices different from the other groups?  What makes their choices interesting?

Students will be listening for the sounds created by other forms of transportation, and creating ways to express the sounds through onomatopoeia sounds and instruments. Fun!

Mrs. Handel-Johnson and Mrs. Kampa