Jul 10, 2013

Close Encounters of the Third Kind


Do you remember Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 movie?

There is a moment... I was very impressed when I saw that for the first time (and even today it's a nice effect). Mother ship landing (see the scene here).

This year I wanted to try something with the children of Musica è Gioco 1a class (4 years). I had with me the soundtrack of the film with the specific track of that scene and after preparing the stereo I told the children - Ok ... here are two sounds, the high ones for the girls and the low ones for the boys. You are standing scattered around the classroom, and move when you hear your own sound. - I sang the main theme for the girls and the "awkward" sounds for boys ... - Ready? Move only when the music begins! -

My colleague with wide eyes, I was trying to understand the too loud speakers and the kids (with fun) were listening carefully triyng not to lose their own sounds!

Did you like it? > Yessss
One more time? > Yessss

At this point we repeated the activity in groups of 2 girls and 2 boys alone while the others were watching what was happening. Who did the work was super involved and the sat children screaming - Come on! Move now! It's your sound! -
Fantastic, I came back home in the evening with a huge smile!





Some time later we decided to develop the activity with something new. So we asked the children to draw on a large sheet with the same principle: the girls draw when they hear their own sounds and the boys when they hear them.


In addition, a few weeks later, we combined the two experiences with some children moving and others pointing the sheet on the ground.


The best thing is that the children chose this activity for the open class with parents :)

The audio track is "Wild Signals" on this album.