What is Sound? A Comprehensive Exploration for Kids Aged 5-12
Educational and Fun Activities
Written by Gregg Payne
23 May 2024
🕓 10 min
Discovering the Science Behind the Sounds We Hear
From the buzz of a bee to your favourite song on the radio, sound is everywhere! But what exactly is sound, and how do we hear it? At Science of Sound, we believe the best way to learn is through curiosity and play. That’s why we’ve created this child-friendly guide to understanding sound—perfect for kids aged 5–12 and their grown-ups.
In this updated guide, we’ll explore what sound is, how it travels, and why different sounds behave in different ways. Along the way, we’ll include simple, fun experiments kids can try at home or at one of our SOS holiday camps.
Whether your child is a budding scientist, a curious question-asker, or just someone who loves loud noises, this blog is the perfect way to introduce them to the amazing world of sound science. Let’s dive in!
1. What is Sound?
Sound is a type of energy that’s made when something vibrates. These vibrations create invisible waves—called sound waves—that move through air, water, or solids until they reach our ears. Once there, the vibrations make tiny parts inside our ears move, and our brain translates those movements into what we hear as sound!
✅ Example: When you pluck a guitar string, it shakes quickly. That shaking moves the air around it, and those movements travel to your ears as sound waves.
✅ Vibrations = Sound: Anything that vibrates can make a sound—from a drum skin to your vocal cords to the speaker in your headphones.
📍 Fun Fact: You can’t hear sound in space! That’s because sound needs something (like air or water) to travel through—and space is a vacuum with no air at all.
Sound is everywhere, and it all starts with something moving. Understanding vibration is the key to unlocking the mystery of how sound is made!
2. How Does Sound Travel?
Sound travels in waves. When something vibrates, it pushes the air (or water, or solid material) around it, creating a chain reaction of movement. These waves move outward from the source in all directions until they reach your ears—or bounce off something else!
✅ Sound Needs a Medium – Sound can travel through gases (like air), liquids (like water), and solids (like wood or metal). It moves faster in solids and slower in gases because the particles are closer together in solids.
✅ Why That Matters: This is why you can hear someone knock through a wall (solid), or why whales communicate over long distances underwater (liquid).
📍 Try It Yourself!
- Tap a metal spoon on a glass of water and then on a table. Which sounds louder or clearer?
- Make a string telephone with paper cups and string. Talk into one cup and listen from the other. The sound travels through the string!
These experiments help children experience the invisible journey of sound, making it easier to understand how sound travels from source to ear!
3. Pitch and Volume: What Makes Sounds Different?
Not all sounds are the same! Some are high or low (that’s pitch), and some are loud or quiet (that’s volume). But what makes them different?
✅ Pitch – This tells us how high or low a sound is. It’s all about frequency—how fast something is vibrating.
- Fast vibrations = high-pitched sounds (like a whistle)
- Slow vibrations = low-pitched sounds (like a drum)
✅ Volume – This tells us how loud or soft a sound is. It’s all about amplitude, which means the size of the vibrations.
- Big vibrations = louder sound
- Small vibrations = softer sound
📍 Try This at Home!
Make a simple guitar using an empty tissue box and rubber bands of different thicknesses. Pluck each band and listen carefully:
- Which one makes a higher sound?
- Which one is louder?
By experimenting with pitch and volume, kids can explore how vibrations create different sound experiences—a key part of understanding how music and communication work!
4. What Happens When Sound Hits Something?
When sound waves hit a surface, they don’t just stop—they bounce, pass through, or get absorbed, depending on what they hit. This explains why some rooms echo while others feel quiet and cosy.
✅ Reflection (Echoes) – Hard, flat surfaces (like walls or cliffs) reflect sound waves, creating echoes. That’s why you hear your voice bounce back when you shout in a canyon!
✅ Absorption – Soft materials (like curtains, cushions, or carpets) absorb sound, soaking up the vibrations and making the space quieter. That’s why music studios have foam panels on the walls!
✅ Transmission – Some sound travels through materials, especially thin or hollow ones. That’s how you can hear voices through a closed door—or even footsteps from the floor above.
📍 Try This:
- Clap your hands in a room with lots of furniture vs. an empty room. Which one sounds louder or more echoey?
- Visit a park, stairwell, or tunnel and say something loud. Can you hear your echo?
Understanding how sound interacts with the environment helps children think like acoustic engineers—designing spaces for sound!
5. Why Do We Hear Different Sounds?
Our ears are amazing tools! They help us hear everything from tiny bird chirps to loud thunderclaps—but how? It all starts with the shape and structure of the ear, which is specially designed to catch sound waves and send them to the brain.
✅ Outer Ear – This is the part you can see. It acts like a funnel, catching sound waves and sending them into the ear canal.
✅ Middle Ear – Inside, the sound waves hit the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. Those vibrations move through three tiny bones (called the hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that amplify the sound.
✅ Inner Ear – Vibrations travel to the cochlea, a spiral-shaped part filled with fluid and tiny hair cells. These hairs turn the vibrations into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.
📍 Fun Fact: Dogs can hear higher-pitched sounds than humans, which is why they react to dog whistles that we can’t hear!
Understanding how we hear shows just how sensitive and smart our ears are—and why protecting them from loud sounds is so important.
6. Experimenting with Sound at Home
Now that we’ve explored how sound works, it’s time for some DIY sound science! These simple, fun experiments are perfect for kids to try at home (or during an SOS holiday camp).
✅ Water Xylophone – Fill several glasses with different amounts of water. Tap them gently with a spoon and listen:
- More water = lower pitch
- Less water = higher pitch
✅ String Telephone – Use two paper cups and a long piece of string. Poke a hole in the bottom of each cup, tie the string through, and pull it tight. One person speaks into a cup while the other listens—sound travels through the string!
✅ Make a Kazoo – Take a cardboard tube (like from a toilet roll) and cover one end with wax paper secured by a rubber band. Poke a small hole near the closed end and hum into the open end to make a buzzing sound!
📍 Why It Matters: These hands-on activities help children understand pitch, vibration, and sound travel—while sparking curiosity and creativity through play.
At Science of Sound, we believe that the best science lessons begin with a question—and a little noise!
Final Thoughts: Exploring Sound Through Science and Play
Sound is all around us—from the music we love to the voices we hear every day. By understanding how it works, children can begin to explore the world with new awareness and scientific curiosity.
Through fun facts, hands-on experiments, and clear explanations, kids aged 5–12 can learn that sound isn’t just something we hear—it’s something we can see, feel, create, and explore.
✅ Learn how sound travels
✅ Discover pitch and volume
✅ Try sound experiments at home
✅ Explore ears and hearing
📍 Want to go even deeper?
Join us at one of our Science of Sound holiday camps, where children explore sound through slime-making, noise putty, wave experiments, and much more!
Give your child the gift of science they can hear—and a summer full of sound-powered discovery.
