Through this investigation, the children seemed to have an interest in videos and pictures of instruments made out of pvc pipes. We have used pvc pipes to test out motion of marbles and water, making mazes, and connecting like puzzles, but we never thought to test out sound. This seemed like a good idea to the children. We started to research pipe instruments and became overwhelmed with what we saw!
We finally came up with a plan of what we wanted to pursue.
We made a list of what we would need
1. 8 straight pipes
2. lots of curved pieces
3. 2 pieces of wood
4. tape to put it all together
From there, we went to work. We spent 3 days of putting the pieces together. I did not have the time to go to the hardware store to get 2 pieces of wood, so we used what we had. The end results were pretty amazing!
After the children finished and were satisfied with the results, I took it home to secure it. After explaining to the children what was done (with a drill!) we were ready to get to work. We discussed changes that were made to the instrument. We drew our experiences on paper. We shared our stories as a group. I think the part that was most exciting with the children was the creation of the instrument. Those ideas were shared the most. The children went back to stories of how they used tape, how they connected the pieces, and how they arranged everything. The fact that what they built could make noise was just an added bonus!
"loud pipes are the bigger pipes. Smaller pipes are softer sounds."
"The pipes are big and then small. They make noise."
"Long pipes"
So make sure to stop by the ECEC Program Exhibit on the 16th from 5-6:30 to test out the instrument and see what else we have been up to!
