Sounds All Around

The Nature Preschool at GSES

Get Ready

Suggested Supplies

Nature provides all you need for this activity, though you can also bring:

Bilingual printable sound cards with pictures and labels
A phone or tablet with a bird sound ID app (like Merlin Bird ID)
A blanket or towel for comfortable sitting
Clipboards or notebooks for drawing or writing, with writing tools

Before You Begin

"Today, we’re going to take a listening walk. That means we’ll be extra quiet and listen to the sounds all around us—especially the ones made by nature. We’ll try to match the sounds we hear to pictures of the thing that made each sound, exploring new and familiar words in both English and Spanish."

Ask children, “What kinds of sounds do you think we’ll hear today?”

Step 1: Find a quiet place to walk or sit.

Choose an area that isn’t too loud, where no one sound, such as car traffic, dominates all others. Try walking slowly along a sidewalk, park path, or forest trail—or simply sit in one spot in your yard, schoolyard, or playground.

On a rainy day, you might do this inside by playing nature recordings—this is a great playlist. You can find others by searching “guess the nature sound” or similar phrases on YouTube.

The Nature Preschool at GSES

Step 2: Use your ears like a scientist.

Pause and invite everyone to listen quietly for 10–30 seconds. Then talk about what you heard. Ask children, “Did you hear something moving or singing? Was it loud or soft? Close or far away?”

For older children, ask them to count how many different sounds they hear in 15 seconds of listening. How many can they identify?

The Nature Preschool at GSES

Step 3: Use sound cards to match what you hear.

For babies and toddlers:

When you hear a sound, the adult holds up the matching card and says the word out loud: “That was a bird!”
Introduce simple commands in other languages, such as Spanish: “Listen—pájaro!”

For preschoolers and older children:

Give each child a small set of cards (or let them share).
When someone hears a sound, they can:
- Hold up the card that matches the sound
- Say the word in English, Spanish, or any other language you choose to explore
- Try to mimic the sound themselves

The Nature Preschool at GSES

Step 4: Reflect and share.

After a few minutes of listening and exploring sounds, talk about the experience.

Ask:

“What was your favorite sound today?”
“Was there a sound you couldn’t figure out?”
“Did any of the sounds surprise you?”

You can do this activity again and again, trying out different locations, or revisiting the same location to hear if you notice new sounds or the same ones. The more familiar you become, the more exact you can be in identifying sounds. After some practice, you may be able to tell the difference between a chickadee and a robin, or other types of birds, insects, and more!

The Nature Preschool at GSES

Children Are Working On

Speaking and listening
Building vocabulary in one or two languages
Making connections between sounds and their sources
Practicing memory and matching skills
Regulating their body and emotions

Variations

Start the activity by reading The Listening Walk by Paul Showers, or listening to it on YouTube. After going on your own listening walk, you may be inspired to create your own storybook!
Skip the cards and just listen.
For older children, try out an app like Merlin Bird ID to identify what kind of bird you’re hearing.
Draw pictures of what you heard and make your own sound cards for next time!

More to Explore

Word Bank

Volume - How loud or quiet a sound is. When you whisper, your volume is low. When you shout, your volume is high!
Vocalization - An animal sound made with vocal cords like birds singing, frogs calling, cows mooing, and more.
Chirp - A short, high sound that birds, insects, or frogs make.
Howl - A long, loud sound that animals like wolves or dogs make. Sounds like “Awooooo!”
Rustle - A soft, swishy sound made when something brushes against leaves, grass, or paper. You might hear a rustle when the wind blows through the trees.
Gurgle - A bubbly sound, like water moving

Background Information

Listening to the sounds of nature is linked to health and well-being. Scientists have found that hearing nature sounds can help us relax by lowering a person’s heart rate and blood pressure.
Animals make many different sounds, including vocalizations (bird song, frog calls, barking), sounds made with other body parts (clicking beaks, rubbing wings together), sounds made with natural materials (stomping feet on the ground, pecking wood), and sounds made by moving through the air (bees buzzing, wings flapping).
Trees make a variety of sounds, too! Some trees “creak” as their branches rub together, while others “rustle” as their leaves flutter in the wind.

Reading Connections

Even More

Family, Friends, & Forests: Talk about sounds you might hear in a forest. Are they different from the sounds you heard during your walk?
Do Your Part: Practice learning sound words, like “tranquila” or “quiet” in Spanish.
Career Exploration: Invite children to explore a green job that involves investigating the sounds of nature—NATURALIST. Naturalists study and teach people about the natural world.