Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i Click Science and Discovery Magazine for Preschoolers and Young Children

Gently touch the top of your throat, a little below your chin. Do you feel a small bump there? That’s your voice box. Two thin bands of muscle, called vocal cords, are inside. They rest open when you breathe, to let air in and out. When you sing, hum, or talk, the vocal cords close. They vibrate as air you breathe out moves over them. That makes sound! Many animals also have voice boxes and vocal cords, but they make different sounds. Cats’ vocal cords can open and close fast. The vocal cords make a purr when they open and close at the same time the cat breathes. Frogs and some monkeys have pouches of skin near their throats. The pouches puff up with air like balloons and make their…

Psssst! Your friend leans close and whispers a secret. Woof! Woof! His dog barks as a car zooms past. Beep beep! The driver honks her horn to say hello. People and animals and things are making sounds all the time. Pluck a guitar string or a rubber band stretched between your fingers. You see the string or rubber band go back and forth very fast. It is vibrating. You can’t see it, but the vibration makes waves in the air, like you make waves in a bathtub of water when you waggle your hand up and down quickly. Every sound is made by vibrations. Place your fingertips lightly on the front of your throat. Say or shout a few words. Feel the tiny, quick, shaking movements? That is the vibration…

The music blasts as the dancers kick their legs high. I sit on the side, feeling the rhythm flow through me. I tap my fingers to the beat. I just can’t sit still. I can’t wait for my favorite friend in the whole wide world to show up. This will be Harmony’s first dance class ever, but I can help her. I’ve been taking dance for three whole months now, so I know all about it. The studio door swings open, and I grin at Harmony. My smile disappears when I see who’s standing behind her . . . Demi . . . Harmony’s copycat little sister. Demi tackles me with a sticky hug. Harmony plops down and peels off her sneakers. She pulls new ballet shoes out of her…

Close your eyes while a friend says your name from different spots around you. Can you tell where your friend is each time? Now try again, but this time cover one of your ears. Is guessing where your friend is easier, harder, or the same using one ear instead of two? Most people find it harder to tell where sounds come from with only one ear. Why? Because your ears are not next to one another but on different sides of your head. Each ear hears a slightly different sound. Your brain uses those differences to tell where the sound comes from. Did you move or tilt your head when you tried to locate your friend? It helps! Too bad people have only a few weak muscles controlling our ears.…