Spring is in the air, school breaks are coming up soon, and attention wanders from class work to thoughts of getting outside and having fun. To help keep those listening skills sharp, I have varied offerings for teachers today: three for elementary students, and one freebie for upper grades to high school. Parents are encouraged to modify and use any of these activities at home.
For elementary students, here are listening activities that incorporate academics. In order of estimated difficulty:
WHO’S MY PARTNER?
This listening activity focuses on counting and numeral recognition.
- Split the students into two teams (for to 20 players).
- Give one team secret papers that have from one to ten dots.
- Give the other team secret papers that have the numerals from one to ten.
- One at a time, have the students with the dots each knock that number of times on a table and ask, “Who is my partner?”
- The student with the matching numeral responds, “I am number____.”
This focuses on critical listening and serves as practice for the week’s (or previous weeks’) spelling words.
- The teacher arranges students in a line. (This can be done with students standing beside their desks, if they are in rows; or standing in a circle.) Then the teacher calls out the first spelling word.
- The first student in line calls out the first letter in that word.
- The second person calls out the second letter.
- The third person calls out the third letter and so on.
- The person who says the last letter in the word must turn to the next person in the sequence and say “SPARKLE.”
- The person who is “sparkled” must sit down.
- If a word is misspelled, the person to say the first wrong letter must sit down and the spelling of that word continues.
- After a student is sparkled, the leader calls out a new word.
- The game continues until only one student remains standing, then all students stand back up and the teacher calls out the next word.
Adapted from Source: Gary Hopkins, Education World; http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/field_day_games.shtml#sthash.eSt5XI7u.dpuf.
ONE, TWO, THREE, BUZZ!
This listening activity focuses on math multiplication facts.
- Start in a circle by counting aloud, each student taking a turn, going around the circle to get familiar with the counting movement.
- The teacher then calls out a change–a number that represent its multiplication table. Numbers of that multiplication table will be replaced with the word BUZZ.
- For example, replacing numbers in the 5 times table with BUZZ instead of the actual number: 1, 2, 3, 4, BUZZ, 6, 7, 8, 9, BUZZ, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, BUZZ.
Source: The Drama Toolkit. (2015). Drama Games: Listening. http://www.dramatoolkit.co.uk.
For UPPER GRADES to HIGH SCHOOL, here’s a listening strategy for teaching listening and attending skills. Click to download the freebie:
Happy Springtime! © 2017 Susanne Marie Poulette