CAN YOU HEAR ME?

What? What did you say? Do you feel like some of your students are “teacher deaf” because they never seem to listen to you? Learning to listen is a key to being a good student. These listening activities might be just what your students need this week to focus and self-regulate.

*Run off a copy of a giant ear and tape it to a stick. When you hold up the ear children know they need to listen with big ears!

*Focus children’s attention, and then practice giving directions ONE time. If children need a prompt, invite another student to repeat what you have said.

*Occasionally, have children close their eyes when you read a story. Can they make pictures in their brain? Can they identify story elements? Can they retell the sequence?
*Sing songs or say nursery rhymes with your eyes closed.

Mystery Sounds 

Ask children to close their eyes. Walk around the room making different noises (open the door, ring a bell, sharpen a pencil) while children identify what you are doing.


Sound Walk 

Take the children on a “silent” nature walk. Challenge them to remember all the sounds that they can hear. Make a list of all the sounds when you return to the classroom.

Story Sounds 

Invite the children to add sounds as you read a story. Prompt them before you read by telling them to roar for the dinosaur, squeak for the mouse, or snap for rain.


Gossip 

Have children sit in a circle. Whisper a simple message in the first child’s ear. That child passes the message to the person sitting next to them and so on around the circle. The last child repeats what she heard, which is usually far from the original whisper.


Perfect Pitch 

Hum a note and ask children to join in. Vary the pitch from high to low. You can also use a xylophone or other class instrument to play this game.


Name That Tune 

Demonstrate how to play this game by humming the tune to familiar songs. Let children take turns humming tunes as their classmates guess the name of the song.

To Grandmother’s House We Go 

Place 5-10 objects on a table or shelf in a far corner of the room. Have your class sit with you in the opposite corner of the room. Take a basket or grocery sack and that they are going to get to take turns going to grandmother’s house. “We’re going to pretend that grandmother lives over there in the other side of the room.” One at a time select a child to go to grandmother’s. Give her the bag and name one things that you want her to get for you at grandmother’s. Explain that you’ll only tell her one time, so she’ll have to listen very carefully. Instruct the rest of the class to sit quietly so they can remember to see if she gets the right thing. The child skips across the room, selects the named object, puts it in the bag, and returns to the teacher. Cheer if she remembers the correct object.

Hint! Start with one object and make it increasingly difficult by adding more objects or descriptive words. For example, “Bring me something that is red and grows on a tree.” “Bring me the book, the block, and the blue crayon.”