Locate The Blocks Game - Thematic Book Activity

As we are exploring the Five Senses for this month’s theme, we will conduct an extension activity related to a thematic book - Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss. You may borrow the book from the library to read together with your child. Alternatively, read aloud videos of the book are also available on YouTube.

Story Synopsis: The story follows a kind elephant named Horton who heard a small noise coming from a speck of dust, asking him for help to find a safe place where they can exist harmoniously. Horton believes that ‘A person’s a person, no matter how small’ so he makes it his mission to save the Who’s although no one else believes they are there! Thus Horton begins his epic journey to save the tiny inhabitants.

Fun facts:

Do you know that elephants have very good hearing as their ears are used to funnel in sound waves from the environment? They can detect sounds as low as 14 to 16 hz (human low range: 20 hz) and as high as 12,000 hz (human high range: 20,000). No wonder Horton could hear the small noise that other animals could not!

Elephants frequently use infrasonic sounds, which are sounds emitted below the human hearing range, in long-distance communication. Research has shown that elephants are capable of recognising calls and voices of particular individuals from 1 to 1.5 km away.

Now, test your hearing with the game below.

Locate the Blocks Game

What you need
Step by step
  • Shoe box or a small box with cover
  • Tape
  • Marble*
  • 2 rectangular blocks*

    1) Do this experiment with a game buddy (older sibling/adult).

    2) Tape the blocks to the base of the shoebox. Do not show your buddy where you tape the blocks. Place a marble in the box. Cover the lid and tape it. 

    3) Challenge your buddy to figure out the position of the blocks by listening to the marble as it rolls inside the box. Get your buddy to draw their guess on a piece of paper.

    *You can reuse the marble in the Mystery Bag Challenge and the blocks from the Visual Memory Game)

    Tips: 

    • Use only one block inside the box with younger children. 
    • Encourage older children to use more complex block shapes and arrangements. 

    Learn: 

    Through this game, children learn that they can use sound to figure out the position of objects. The collision of the marble with the blocks create vibrations. These are sound waves that are carried to our ears and our brains interpret the sounds to infer the position of the blocks.

    Introduce your older children to the concept of echolocation, a method used by some animals to detect objects by producing a specific sound and listening for its echo. Whales, dolphins, and bats are some animals that use echolocation to find food.

    Learning about the sense of hearing is one of the learning areas in our Five Senses box. Pique your child’s curiosity and watch their eyes flicker with wonder as they seek to understand and explore the world around them using their five senses. Order your Squizzel box now, whilst stocks last!