Sounds All Around (Let's Read-And-Find-Out Science

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1

by Holly Keller Wendy Pfeffer, Holly Keller (Illustrator)

Sounds are all around us. Clap your hands, snap your You're making sounds. Read and find out how people and animals use different kinds of sounds to communicate.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Kids, Stem, Music

32 pages, Library Binding

First published December 12, 1998

Reviews

[Alexis Levine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer is an excellent book to introduce everyday sounds. This book would be good to read for 5-7 year olds when introducing sound to children. We can discuss sounds people can make, different things people can do and touch to make sound, and explore the variety of different animal sounds, and more. Students can make their own megaphones with construction paper and see how sound becomes amplified and students can explore if sound is higher through water or plastic, etc. They can test this by putting something that vibrates, such as a hand massager up to a plastic bag full of water and listen to the sound through the water, then place the vibrating item against plastic and see which is louder. Sound is great and children don't realize the impact it has on people. This book and lesson follows Georgia Performance Standards S1CS1 and S1P1.

[Charmaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title (italicize): Sounds All Around: Let’s Read and Find out Science-1
Author: Wendy Pfeffer
Illustrator (if separate from author): Holly Keller
Genre: Children’s book, Nonfiction
Theme(s): Sound, Communication, hearing, music
Opening line/sentence (type directly from text): “Sounds are all around us”
Brief Book Summary (2-3 sentences in your own words): This book discusses sounds animals and people make to communicate. It also talks about things people can do and touch to create sounds.
Response to Two Professional Reviews (3-4 sentences in your own words): Megan Phillips and Teshamae love this book as it teaches students about sound and how it works. Megan also talks about the activities the author provided for students to do so they can understand sound better. I also agree and feel as though the activities were a good thing to include for students to test their understanding on what they learned and what they still need to work on.
Tell Me Framework (4 sentences in your own words):
Like(s): Informative, Discuss different sounds animals and people make to communicate.
Dislike(s): The book was a bit lengthy
Patterns(s): The book is about sound
Puzzle(s): I was not confused about anything in this book.
Consideration of Instructional Application (3-4 sentences in your own words): I would use this book in a preschool setting by having students tell me what they already know about sound. Also, to do an activity where students will be creative and make sound by using their five senses. This can be done by using their hands, stomping their feet, making sound with their mouth etc.

[Bryan Cha]

This book does a really great job of covering the concepts of sounds by keeping the book interesting and filled with many great illustrations to engage the reader. The book also does a great job showing how both humans and animals use sound to their advantage which was really beneficial. The amount of fun activities that this book provides allows students to really understand the concept of sounds such as clapping their hands, knocking on desks, listening to music, and many more. Overall, this book is a must-read for younger children.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive! This is a fun, interactive book.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beginning reader book about sounds.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elementary and up nonfiction book about sound including how we hear, the level or decibel and certain sounds.

[Katelyn Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a first grade class I was subbing for, and I adored it! What a wonderful way to teach kiddos about sound waves and vibrations.

[Danielle Hamele · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very cute informational book for kids about how sounds are made

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great non-fiction for kids about hearing and sounds. Beautiful illustrations and appropriate level info for children.

[Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you can imagine, this book is all about sounds. It talks about how we hear sound and how sounds are made (vibrations). It discusses how sound travels through air, the ground, and water. It shows how bats use echolocation to travel, and that this uses high-pitched sounds that we cannot hear. It also discusses decibels and how loud things can be.

I wish that there had been a little more science terminology mentioned in the book (sound waves, mediums, etc.). I also think that there could have been more discussed in the section on decibels and how kids need to protect their hearing.

This would be an excellent book to use with a unit on sound. But, there would need to be a little more mentioned to fully cover the topic and learn the objectives than is mentioned in this book.

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books in this book are dated but the text is perfect to teach about sounds. The text was really easy to read and simple enough for preschoolers to understand. The kids had fun learning about all of the different sounds around them. Cassie and her friends had fun pretending to make each sound. Of course we made the sounds super loud. I love how they used people and animals throughout the book. Some of the sounds they talked about kids didn't know but we made it work. I recommend going on a sound walk. If older kids you can blindfold them and make different noises then have them guess what the sound is. Could even use in a music room and play different instruments. I highly recommend checking this book out.

[Betty Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can teach about 'sound' with this book. I think the appropriate grade level for this book is K-3. This book uses lots of sounds that we can easily hear such as sing, talk, and hum. Moreover, this book explains that the sounds made by the vibration. If I am going to teach students using this book, I am going to make my students to place their hands on their throat to feel the vibration of their throat. This book also discusses about how we can measure sounds and also provides some activities at the end of the book that we can use in our lesson. I absolutely like this book, and this will be a fun book to read to the students.

[Janice Redding · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because it can be used as an introduction to sound in the classroom. It does a good job discussing different sounds that people or animales make such as singing, snapping, clapping, barking, etc. As the teacher, I can read this book to my students to introduce a concept of natural and man-made sounds as well. To show students an example of a man-made sound, I can use an instrument for an activity such as a drum. In addition, I like this because it discusses definitions and examples of vibrations. Overall, I can use this book as an easy lesson to allow students to identify each sound as natural or man-made.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting and informative book about sound for younger children. Our oldest is studying light and sound waves in school and I was hoping to find a book at our local library that would reinforce the information she got in school.

This book does a decent job of doing that; the concepts are clearly presented and the book informs without being boring overwhelming. The illustrations are cartoonish and colorful and will likely appeal to younger children. As the book is intended for a younger audience, I think our girls thought it was a bit babyish. Still, the narrative is entertaining and interactive and we enjoyed reading it together.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very informative. I enjoyed it for the most part. It was very easy to understand and I think it would be great for children to learn all about sound from. I did think it was a little long for small kids though.

[Megan Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can be used to teach students in younger grades (K-2nd) more about sounds. The activities in the book can be done with the students, so they can understand sound better.

[Beth Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

From a 6 year old: I liked the activities that you can do at the end of the book, but I didn't really like the book part and that's why I said it's 'okay'.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro. for our experiements with sound. Not enough detail about how the ear works though.

[Teshamae · Rating 5 out of 5]

We loved this book. It was a great introduction to how sounds work, and it introduced kids to important terms to know.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will work as an intro to sound for STEAM storytime. Easy to read and understand.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be an excellent book for explaining sound to older children.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This hit at about the exact right level for the girls - maybe a bit advanced for Maddie at 4, but she mostly followed and it did maintain her interest. Kait definitely learned the basics.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells that vibrations cause sound.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade: K-2
Topic: sound