Rattle
Sound is made by something shaking back and forth; stop the shaking and the sound stops
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Rattle is a woodpecker who drums on hollow logs — tat-tat-tat — all day long. But Rattle isn't just making noise; Rattle is showing a secret. "Every sound comes from something shaking," Rattle says. "When I drum, the log shivers. When you talk, something in your throat shivers. Shaking makes sound. Hold the shaking still, and — poof — the sound is gone."
Rattle's friend Gilly the grasshopper hears a bell ringing and covers both ears. "Where does that even come from?" Gilly wonders, a little uneasy. "Sound just... appears out of nowhere. It's spooky." The ringing seems to come from thin air, and Gilly doesn't like not knowing.
"It's not from nowhere," says Rattle. "Come feel." Rattle taps the bell — rinnng — then lays a wing on it. Gilly feels it buzzing, quivering fast under the wing. "It's shaking!" Gilly gasps. Then Rattle presses the bell still. The ring stops at once. "Stop the shake, stop the sound," says Rattle. "Now put your hand on your own throat and hum."
Gilly hums, hand on throat — and feels a tiny tickly buzz. "It's shaking in ME too!" Gilly laughs, delighted. Not spooky at all — sound was a shiver the whole time, something Gilly could feel. Gilly hums high, then low, feeling the buzz change. The mystery cracked wide open into something Gilly could touch.
Gilly spends the whole afternoon finding buzzes — the buzz of a plucked blade of grass, the buzz of a tapped leaf, the buzz of a happy hum. Each one a little shake, each one a little sound. A bright, satisfied feeling fills Gilly up, the good feeling of figuring out how the world works. And Rattle drums a happy beat, and Gilly feels every buzz of it.
The SproutLab ensemble
Rattle is part of SproutLab's distributed-narrative cast. Each character embodies a different curricular primitive; together they teach the full subject.
