FEATURE
August 2024
Garden of Sound
By Rene Kindinger
This month, being that it is nearing the end of the summer season, I’m going to take you outside. Isn’t there just something so elevating about breathing in summer air? It is so easy to take for granted the glow of the sun on your face and the feeling of fresh air in your lungs while it is available to us, then we long for them all throughout the winter. Keeping this in mind, I just want to remind you that in a few months the rain will return, and we will all be back to yearning for the days of sunshine.
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This activity provides you with a much-needed excuse to soak in a little more Vitamin D, while you create a fun outdoor getaway for you, your family, and your friends that can last as long as you like and grow into anything you can dream up.
This concept was one I came up with when I was teaching art for first and second graders in a very hot summer. The idea was to get the kids out into the breeze rather than letting them stew in their own sweat in the classroom (the AC was out, as luck would have it). Most of the supplies can be obtained through recycling. If you are doing this activity with children, remember that it is never too early to teach kids about the value of repurposing waste and impart some basic knowledge on them regarding the fundamentals of recycling. For example, the categories to split recyclables into, composting, and what happens after the recyclables are taken away.
But I digress. The activity actually starts during the gathering phase. Here is what you will be looking for:
Empty wine or beer bottles
Chopsticks or drum sticks
Twine or thin rope
1 or 2 big handfuls of gravel or sand
Some water from the tap/hose
Old pots or pans, including the lids
Old Wrenches
Anything solidly metal (you want it to have some strength behind it so it doesn’t crumple when you hit it)
Any bells you can find
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You can make inventive substitutions however you see fit. This is your creative space!
The process, once you have your materials, is super simple.
Pick your spot. I recommend where a tree is growing next to a fence so you have two different surfaces to attach things to.
Fill some of the bottles with water (you can even use food dye to make it interesting) and tie the twine to the top of the bottle so it can hang. Using bottles that are screw top or that have a lip of some kind will make this a lot easier.
Hang the bottles from the tree in whatever order you like. You can hang them so the water levels are in order next to each other, or in no particular order and from different heights. It’s up to you.
Put the handful of sand or gravel into one or two of the bottles and hang them as well.
Hang any other material you have collected — tin signs, pots and pans, door knockers, anything metal — anywhere on the fence or on the tree.
When you are done, use the chopsticks (or drumsticks) to create your own music. Take turns, make it silly, push yourself and your companions to be inventive. Look up other instruments you can make with recyclable material and arrange them in a fun, organic manner.
The cool thing about this “Sound Garden” is that you can keep adding to it as you find more materials and unique, artistic ways to flair it up. This activity can help children with confidence and inspire them to be inventive. According to The Museum of Life and Science in North Carolina, it can also “help young children develop fine and gross motor skills — grasping a mallet to make a pleasing note promotes strong hand-eye coordination and tactile proficiency.”
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