I decided to go ahead and create a sound map for the sounds I was hearing outside. While I sat on the deck in my backyard, I closed my eyes and really let my ears do all the work. As I sat there and listened to all the sounds, it made me realize how many noises there really are in nature, especially in a town. I used different colours and lines/shapes to represent the different sounds I was hearing. Sounds that I heard was the wind which I represented with a blue loopy line then had the leaves blowing in the wind with a green zigzag. On the paper I placed the zigzag close to the loopy lines to show that they were in relation to each other; when I heard the wind blowing, I would immediately hear the leaves rustling on the trees. I was also able to hear some animals while I was enjoying my time in nature such as a dog barking shown with a brown zigzag going down, birds chirping represented with a red squiggly line, and crickets chirping shown with black circles. I represented the flapping of my neighbors’ flag in the wind with a tight, purple squiggly line going downwards diagonally. The straight, diagonal, grey line is put on my sound map to represent my shed door squeaking open. The other sounds I heard while sitting outside were cars driving by shown with a pink half arrow type of line and a car horn shown with the orange dots on the map. These lines/shapes were all placed on the map randomly because although some of them were corelated, most of the sounds were made without the help of another sound.
When I look at the sound map, it is very evident that no one would have an identical one to the one I have. There are also many sounds that I have represented, but I know that there are way more than I probably even realized while trying to listen for them. Nature is full of ongoing sounds. It made me focus on what I was doing in the moment and not think about the next project I must complete. I was not worrying about work or school or cooking, just focusing on the sounds that I could hear while enjoying some time outdoors. This activity was a great way for me to take a much-needed brain break from everything I have going on in my life right now. In the classroom I believe an activity like this could be very handy in a situation where the class is learning about the environment, they would be able to sit outside and listen to the noises of nature. Another great way to implement this type of activity would be if the class is getting fidgety and unable to sit still, it could be a good idea to take them outside to get some fresh air and have a bit of brain break while still focusing on what is going on around them.
