SOUND BOX
Before I start let me tell you this – in a Montessori class the sound box is a pair of six wooden cylinders (sealed). It has two boxes with red lid and blue lid – containing 6 cylinders each. The box with red lid contains cylinders with red tops and the box with blue lid has cylinders with blue tops.
Well, I’m telling you this because what we did at home has some difference – we used four pair of containers (not cylinders)(because I had only four) and I dint have separate boxes to hold the containers. So it’s just a replication in my own way- a DIY sound box.
Sound box is to help the child develop auditory discrimination – through pairing and grading the sounds. The series of sounds are graded from soft to loud.
How I made our DIY sound box ?
- First you need to find the right containers – containers that look alike in all aspects should do fine. Set 1 and Set 2 ( pair of 6 or 4 like ours or even 5)
- If your containers is opaque then no worries, if it’s transparent or translucent like ours – then you need to work on it to make it opaque.
What we did ? We used thick tape around the container (red and blue tape) , you can also paint. Make sure that you create differences between the set 1 and set 2 containers.
- Our set 1 containers are red and set 2 containers are blue. Set 1 has to be paired with set 2. Add in things into the containers accordingly. Example of things you can use : rice, salt, chana, rajama, flour – just make sure that the sound varies from soft to loud , and also make sure that two pairs don’t sound totally alike.
Set the containers on a tray – red and blue in different rows. Let the child shake the red container close to his ear listening to the sound keenly. Then, take a blue container – shake it and listen to it , then determine if it is the same as their chosen red container , if not set it aside and try the next blue container. Once the match it found the red container and the matching blue container can be paired and set aside. Repeat the process for all the red container – until all the matching blue pair is found .
