ACTIVITY:
MUSIC OF THE ESTUARY

Materials:

Process:

1. Play a commercial tape of environmental sounds or students can make their own tapes while visiting a wetland area.
2. Ask students to brainstorm a list of different ways to simulate the sounds of nature using objects or their own voices.
3. Suggest that students simulate background noises of the estuary, including grasses blowing in the wind, a frog plopping into a pond, a seed pod rattling in the wind, a branch falling, or an owl hooting.
4. Ask each student to concentrate on one sound and form a class Estuary Orchestra! Write a musical score putting sounds to songs such as “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, “The Blue Danube”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Students may want to have several tape recorders available to tape and play back their particular sound.
5. Perform the Estuary Symphony!

Example: “Old MacDonald Had a Farm...e-i-e-i-o!”

(simulate background noises such as a baby alligator, crickets, mosquitos, and various birds)

The old bass fisherman had a place, e-i-e-i-o!
And in this place there was a frog, e-i-e-i-o!
With a rribbit rribbit  here and a rribbit rribbit there, here a plop, there a
plop, everywhere a plop, plop!
The old bass fisherman had a place, e-i-e-i-o!
And in this place there was a bird, e-i-e-i-o!
And this ole bird spied a real green frog, e-i-e-i-o!
With an eek eek here and an eek eek there, here an eek, there an eek,
everywhere an eek, eek,
The old bass fisherman had a place, e-i-e-i-o!