What Is Creative Sound Play?

Creative Sound Play is an entirely play-based method that gives teachers concrete tools that focus and engage children, by simply making intentional types of sounds–NOT music, in fun, very specific, and deliberate ways. 

This 4-module quick-start guide immediately enables all teachers to transform classroom transition times into short, fun learning bursts that solve several universal Pre-K challenges through the core lessons of the Greenfield Method:

  • Immediately turns unmanageable, wasted transition times into fun, joyful, quality learning bursts and utilizes the repetitive frequency that transition times naturally provide and which help children feel safe and calm

  • Provides a flexible, comprehensive set of tried-and-true, easy-to-learn, sound activities that transform any transition—whether 5 seconds or 5 minutes, and happen in any location– classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, gyms, or playgrounds—at ones fingertips

  • Is great fun for teachers and children to learn, lead, make mistakes, laugh together, practice, master, add complexity to, make more mistakes and master again

  • Inspires all children whether–verbal, non-verbal, and special needs

  • Helps children develop social emotional learning through collaboration and reflection

  • Enhances children's executive function skills–self regulation and inhibitory control, creativity and cognitive flexibility, & working memory

  • Teaches active-listening skills, phonemic awareness, pre-reading literacy, & math and science concepts

  • Develops mindfulness, independence, and raises self-esteem

  • Promotes hand-eye coordination

  • Support students at all language developmental stages

  • Seamlessly integrates with all curricula and subject matter

Get started with a free preview of a sound activity from the Creative Sound Play Quick Start Guide by subscribing to our newsletter.

Certificated Courses

  • $19.95

Let's Wake Up to Sound! Introduction to Sound‑Based Classroom Transitions

  • Course
  • 8 Lessons

This introductory certificated course equips educators with methods to convert routine transitions (e.g., lining up, changing activities) into short, playful sound sessions that support attention, listening, and self‑regulation. Educators will learn the basic techniques for transitions and understand the benefits of using sound and play in their classrooms.

  • $19.95

Leading Classrooms through Sound

  • Course
  • 6 Lessons

This course teaches strategies to use sound-based activities to proactively manage behavior, set expectations, calm groups, and reduce disruptions.

  • $19.95

Executive Functions and SEL Training

  • Course
  • 8 Lessons

This certificated course teaches educators how deliberate sound play develops executive skills (working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control) and boosts social-emotional learning.

  • $145

The Creative Sound Play Quick Start Guide

  • Course
  • 17 Lessons
  • 185-day access

This certificated course introduces a collection of practical Sound Activities that transform all classroom transition times into short, fun, learning bursts. You'll learn the basic skills for how to turn hours of wasted transition time into play-based learning that teaches the whole child, is collaborative, and supports social emotional learning, active-listening, executive function skills and more!

  • $145

Advanced Sound Activities

  • Course
  • 15 Lessons
  • 185-day access

A collection of additional Sound Activities that build upon the lessons in the Quick Start Guide. Through this certificated course, you and your students will develop new skills that include a broader range of modalities - large and small groups, student-led conducting, using hand percussion instruments, children’s artworks, and creating wonderful end-of-year celebratory Sound events.

  • $240

Creative Sound Play Bundle

  • Bundle
  • 2 Products

Get both the Quick Start Guide and the Advanced Sound Activities certificated courses in one discounted bundle!

  • $10

Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz Family Digital Album

  • Download
  • 14 files

Produced by Creative Sound Play founder Hayes Greenfield, this award-winning family album is an eclectic collection of children's songs with wonderful, lively jazz arrangements that are performed by Hayes Greenfield, Richie Havens, David Berkman, Jay Anderson, Tony Reedus, Miles Griffith, and more!

Hayes Greenfield

Hayes Greenfield, founder of Creative Sound Play, has been a teaching artist for over 30 years, and regularly works with educators to transform transition times into effective routines that seamlessly guide children from one activity to another.

These collaborative, tried-and-true transition activities integrate with all curricula and immediately engage and develop students SEL, executive function skills, mindfulness and so much more.

Schedule a workshop with Hayes today!

Testimonials

“[Creative Sound Play] builds in a lot of the executive function—the cognitive development especially. Promoting active-listening, focusing skills, all of those things. It really helps!”

Lashaunda

Lead Teacher

“It helps me too. It makes things easier. You get frustrated when the kids are not listening to you, especially at the beginning of the year. There’s so many rules and routines they need to follow. I feel like this will make it easier for the teachers as well to engage the kids.”

Serra

Lead Teacher

“I’ve worked at a lot of schools and we’ve never done sound and the elements of sound. We have music class but it’s not to the level that we did it. So I feel like it was really a privilege to see the students here that are so young evolve.”

Melina

Assistant Teacher

“A fun and engaging set of activities for kids that is solid gold!”

“Sound is ever-present and it’s simple. You don’t need anything expensive. So out of something so simple, there's a world of infinite possibilities.”

“[The] Method provides all non-music pre-school teachers with the tools necessary to work with sound and silence in their classrooms in very substantial, musical ways.”