Kindergarten Activity No. 34 – Listening Games

Listening Games

Listening skills are critical for speech and language development. We learn language by hearing. Children learn new vocabulary and expand their sentences and grammar all from listening. Poor listening skills might result in difficulties when it comes to following directions, difficulties in learning new words and in constructing grammatically correct sentences. Listening skills help children progress in literacy, for example children need good listening skills to learn the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, which is a basic requirement for learning how to read and write.

 

Listening involves paying attention to environmental sounds, music, conversations, and stories. Below are five listening activities and games that target the components of listening. The more you practice the more you can help your child develop his/her listening skills.

 

Game 1: What was that sound?

1. Ask your child to sit with his/her back to you.
2. Make an animal sound.
3. Your child must guess which animal makes that sound.

Variation:

Play this game with real objects too.

1. Ask your child to sit with his/her back to you. It is important that your child does not see what you are doing. To make the game more fun you can cover his/her eyes with a scarf.
2. Make a sound, such as shutting a door, switching on the blender, sweeping, shaking keys etc.
3. Your child must guess which object makes that sound.

Game 2: What sound is missing?

To play this game you need pictures of various animals.

1. Choose three pictures (for example a cow, a duck, and a pig) and put them on the table.
2. Tell your child that you are going to make two animal sounds (for example that of the cow and that of a pig), and explain that s/he has to listen carefully to these sounds and find out which animal sound you left out (that of the duck).
3. Ask your child to tell you which animal sound you left out and to give you its picture/card (in this case the picture of the duck).

Variation: This activity could be played with different musical instruments and other common objects that make sounds, such as keys, paper, etc.

Tip: You can make this game less challenging or more challenging by adding or removing the number of objects/pictures you present or by adding or removing the number of sounds, etc.

 

Game 3: I spy with my little eye

 

Describe different objects in the room and have the child guess what they are.

 

Game 4: Green light, red light

 

Ask your child to move, run, or jump around the room. When s/he hears red, s/he needs to stop moving, running, or jumping. As soon as s/he hears green s/he starts over again.

 

Game 5: Did I get it?

 

Ask your child to tell you a sentence or phrase that he would like you to say. You will then have to repeat exactly what your child said. Your child must then tell you if you said it exactly the way s/he did.

For example:

Parent says: “What do you want me to say?”

Child says: “Keys in the box”

Parent says: “Keys in the shoe” (instead of box)

Then ask your child: “Did I get it?”

In this case your child should answer no.

 

Ms. Maria Camilleri

K 2.2