Sound Cylinders

Here is another Montessori inspired lesson called Sound Cylinders. The object of this lesson is to refine the auditory sense. This is my homemade version. Here's what you'll need:
*film canisters
*red and blue construction paper
*things that make different sounds like chick peas, rice, salt, bells, ect.

Most people don't have a bunch of empty film canisters laying around. I went to a place that develops film and asked them for their empty ones. They were happy to give them to me. Ask for at least 8. It's helpful if they're all the same but I didn't want to seem to picky so I just crossed my fingers. I only got one different color. I started off using 8. Cover 4 canisters with blue construction paper and 4 with red construction paper.


Next fill up one red and one blue canister of the same object.


Close the lids. Show your child how to sort the colors and put the reds on one side and the blues on the other in a line. Take one red and bring it up to your ear and shake it. Then choose one blue from the line and shake it. If it's not a match put it back in line. If it is a match put them together to the side. Continue this until they've found all the matches.


After they've mastered those, you can add more sounds. Another activity is lining them up loudest to softest or guessing what's in the container.