Submitted by Marcia Working, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Idea posted April 2, 2004
If you haven't heard of Slinky's Pop Toobs, you need to discover them. They are expandable tubes that lower in pitch as you stretch them, and they go higher in pitch when you "scrunch" them. My students and I have created some terminology for the different sounds. The "stretch" is stretching the tube quickly, and then the "controlled stretch" is when you stretch the tube, bit by bit, to a beat. There is also the "scrunch," which is putting the tube back together, and the "croak," where you bend the center of the compressed tube and it sounds exactly like a frog. We have also used them as telephones to listen to ourselves and our neighbors as we sing. The Pop Toobs come in six neon colors-24 to a box. I'm just beginning to create lessons to use them, and the students are being very creative. (For more information on Pop Toobs, go to: www.beyondplay.com)