Our Senses- Hearing

There are sounds all around us. Some sounds make us want to dance. Some make us aware of danger. Some sounds are high like a whistle, some sounds are low, like a drum. How do we hear them?  Hearing is one of the senses. On each side of our head there is an ear that helps us hear sounds all around us. When we look in a mirror we can see only part of our ear. That part is called the outer ear. It is shaped like a baseball glove. This shape helps to catch the sounds. But what happens next?  The sounds travel into the little hole in our ear straight to a eardrum that starts vibration that passes on to other parts of inner ear: three little bones, tube and to the nerves that send special message to our brain. Brain "reads" the message and lets us know what sound do we hear. 

Some people can't hear. They are deaf. It affects their ability to speak. They can't say correctly sounds because they never hear them. These people use sign language to communicate with each other. Some people who have partial hearing use hearing aids. In class, we read the book about elephant Oliver who could not hear well. He was not happy, he was always on the side when his friends played games, his brother and sister could not watch TV with him, because Oliver would made it very very loud. One day, his mom took him to a doctor who gave him a hearing aids. Oliver was the happiest elephant because w]he could hear his friends singing "Happy Birthday" song to him he could play with his friends, he could enjoy TV show with his family.  

With our ears we can do so many mitzvas. We can hear the sounds of shofar on Rosh Hashana and megillah on Purim, we can hear music and someone's brocha!  

Dr. Zhanna taught us "Ear Do and Don'ts":

Do cover your ears when the sound is very loud

Do make TV sound low

Don't put anything inside of your ear

Do go to a doctor if your ear hurts 

Do pay attention to every sound around you. It might warn you of danger.