Hear ye! Hear ye!

Listen Up!

Now that I've got to know the kids a little better and we have started our year off with being "Bucket Fillers", our next lesson focused on the students using their listening ears! We talked about the importance of hearing vs. listening and REALLY paying attention to detail and following instructions.

 

Listening Activities:

I always like to start the lesson off with some type of "attention grabber"; therefore, I used a ball to help me with this task. During my first lesson of the year when I was getting to know each class, the students had to show me their good listening ears by closing their eyes and listening for the number of times I bounced the ball. Therefore, the students were familiar with the bouncy ball I brought to class previously; however, this time, the question was different and I explained to the kids that their job was to pay close attention, watch and listen. Before I bounced the ball, I coughed really loud... (I mean REALLY, obnoxiously loud)!!! As the kids watched and listened, most of them were counting or focusing on the number of bounces. When I finished bouncing the ball, most of them immediately raised their hand (thinking they already knew the answer); however, when I asked the students, "What did I do right before I bounced the ball?", some of their hands went down. Usually there is one student in the crowd that picked up on what I did before bouncing the ball, and then that opens up the floor for us to discuss paying close attention when listening to others so that we don't miss any important details.

 Lego Listening Game:

This is a listening game I've read about in a professional learning book and I've also seen it on one of my personal favorites... PINTEREST! :) For more information about this listening game, please see my previous post by clicking here.

I read, "The Worst Day of My Life Ever!" to my 1st-4th graders, and I read the book "Listen Buddy" with my PreK and Kindergarten students to go along with my lesson on listening. Both books discuss the importance of listening and following directions.  

Follow Up Listening Activities:

So... today I went to a workshop and the presenter TOTALY fooled me with this game! He first asked the crowd if we had ever heard of the game "Simon says", and of course everyone nodded in agreement. Next he tells us, "We are going to play a quick game of Simon Says... I need everyone to stand up." Of course, ALMOST EVERYONE falls for it and stands up. There were only two people that got it and didn't stand up... because SIMON DIDN'T SAY TO STAND UP! Ugh... how dumb did I feel?!? I am SO going to do this quick/fun little activity with my lesson come Monday as an extra activity!

End of the lesson Game:

This is a listening activity that I bought from The Sublime Speech Website and used last year; however, I changed it up a bit this year using technology and the latest QR craze!

 I always separate the class in to two teams. Each member of the team selects a card from the bucket that has directions on it. The student that pulls the card has to follow the directions exactly as they are given to receive a point for their team. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game is declared the winner.

Students had the opportunity to choose QR cards I made instead of the red cards. These were considered the harder ones because the computer reads them instead of me and sometimes she reads the directions fast! This was my way of using a great idea that the Sublime Speech Website had to fit my own personal needs and to incorporate technology. This also gave me a chance to change things up a bit from last year. If you'd like a copy of the QR (following direction) cards I made to go along with this lesson, please click here.