Cockatoo's Loud and Soft
Listening for loud and soft, fast and slow
How it plays
One of the Bush Band's animals plays four times. Ruby Roo asks "Is it loud or soft?" (or "fast or slow?"), and your child taps the picture: a big speaker or a small one, four dots close together or two far apart. They're the same pictures as the Bush Band's own buttons. A right tap says what it was; a not-yet tap plays it again. First loud and soft, then fast and slow, then both, closer together and with all six animals. Only the thing being asked about changes, so there's one thing to listen for.
What it's for
Listening for loud and soft, fast and slow. It adapts as your child plays: after a few rounds that go well it steps up a little, and after a couple of hard ones it quietly steps back. The level number only ever goes up.
There is no score to lose and no way to fail. A wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's won.
Away from the screen: Pots and pans band
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Find something to bang (a pot and a wooden spoon) and something to shake (a jar of rice with the lid on tight).
- Take turns: one of you plays, the other says "loud!" or "soft!", then "fast!" or "slow!".
- Swap, and try playing loud and slow, or soft and fast. Which is hardest?
Three questions to ask while they play
- Was that loud or soft? How could you tell?
- What's something that makes a soft sound in our house?
- Can you clap fast? Now slow?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- Was that loud or soft?
- Can you make your voice soft like that?
- Listen closely: fast or slow?
Taking turns on one device: One player listens with eyes closed and says the answer; the other taps it. Swap.
Talk-about cards: a question a day for a week, for the car or the dinner table. Print them, or read them from your phone.
If they find it hard
Loud and soft (dynamics) and fast and slow (tempo) are two of the first things children learn about music. Use the words about everyday sounds: "The rain's soft today", "That truck is loud!" Or try Whipbird's Whistle first: hearing long and short sounds before loud and soft.
A sheet to print
Print the Cockatoo's Loud and Soft sheet
One A4 page, in black and white or colour.
From two to eight
Tiny Steps: made for two- and three-year-olds too. With Tiny Steps on, it stays on its gentlest level, a not-yet tap is never counted, and there's nothing to read.
Switch Tiny Steps or Big Steps on in Who's playing?, on the grown-ups' page.
What it practises
- Loud and soft, fast and slow. Hearing the difference between loud and soft, and fast and slow, and naming it.
AC9AMU2D01 (Music, Years 1–2); EYLF 5.4 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0) - Copying a rhythm. Hearing long and short sounds, and playing them back in the same order.
AC9AMU2D01 (Music, Years 1–2); AC9MFM01 (Mathematics, Foundation); EYLF 5.4 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Cockatoo's Loud and Soft lives in The Dusty Red — attention and impulse control. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated