Kindergarten see high and low sounds as rising and falling shapes on a Spectrogram

Kindergarten (Year 1, age 5 to 6) · 40 min · Teacher device and projector

Year 1 are learning to hear the difference between high and low sounds. The teacher opens Chrome Music Lab's Spectrogram on the board, and before each sound the children predict with their hands where it will appear. She then plays a swanee whistle sliding up and down, a low chime bar followed by a high one, and a drum, and the class watches each sound draw itself: a line that climbs and falls, two short bars at different heights, and a wide smudge for the drum. The children describe what they saw, and the lesson moves on to a singing game where they match their hand height to the notes the teacher sings.

Why this is Passive Transform

Children watch and listen while the teacher makes each sound; they do not operate anything. Sound cannot be seen, and the Spectrogram draws each sound itself as it happens, so the class sees pitch as height and the drum as a smudge with no clear pitch, where the teacher's hand shows only the teacher's own idea of how high a note is.

Compared with

The teacher playing high and low notes while showing the pitch with her hand.

Watch out

If children sing or hum into the microphone and change the picture themselves, they are steering the content and the lesson moves to the Interactive row.

Tools: Chrome Music Lab Nine ideas for your own version in Generate

This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.

Kindergarten see high and low sounds as rising and falling shapes on a Spectrogram.

Nine ideas for your own version.

Read next

Nine ideas for your own version.