Fun games to teach listening skills

What a shock the character has phoned! You have left objects in your magic bag!? For us!? It has four legs. It is grey with a trunk. It has large ears. Top Tip — Another variation is that instead of a phonecall, get a puppet to describe what is in the box. You will need at least one instrument, and three different instruments if you are going to do the harder version of the game. Put out lots of rubber spots in a random array all over the floor. The spots should all be at least two metres apart, and you need at least as many spots as children.

The spots are the rabbit holes. The children are now the rabbits. Have an instrument such as a drum. When the children hear the fox, they will need to get to a rabbit quick and stand on it. Then they are safe. Repeat the game, getting them to move in different ways — for example, hopping, skipping, crawling, jumping sideways etc.

Adding more instruments and animals. When you shake the tambourine, that is the friendly snake. The children will just carry on.

A maraca is the monkey. The drum is still the fox, and that still means hide. Another way of playing is the competitive version.

In this, the fox comes back each time and takes away a few holes. They go and sit somewhere in a socially distanced way. The children are all sailors on the boat. There are different commands that you demonstrate to them, and actions they will do when they hear each one.

These are:. You need at least a couple of instruments for this one, that will be played by either one adult or possibly even two. You are going to have an instrument, for example a tambourine, walk quietly around the circle and then stop and shake it. The idea is the children are going to point to where the sound is coming from. You have some kind of box for this one, and a few things inside that make a noise. The adult is going to handle these.

So, for example, you could have a toy chicken in the box, because chickens make noises in real life. They make the noise of the object. Then everyone tries to copy! In this the adult makes the noise to the first person in the circle. They copy and pass it on to the next person, and keep going like this all the way round.

Then everyone tries to guess what it is. The basic idea is that one child is the traffic light. They stand quite a way from the other children. The rest all start in a line, usually next to a wall or fence. The idea is that one at a time a child will ask if they can move in a certain way.

You can do it so you get a winner at the end, or just the more non-competitive version where you have a few goes and then everyone stands back up. Put some music on and the children all dance.

When it stops, they sit down straight away. The slowest person is eliminated if you are doing the competitive version. For non-competitive, just have another go. A classic party game that is good for simple listening skills.

A perfect combo. The instructions the traffic light will give, and the actions the children do, are the following:. Start off like this. You can either say the instructions verbally, or a slightly harder version is you have three markers — one green, one red and one amber. You hold these up now and again. The children are going to move around like different beans. The instructions the adult will give in this game, and the corresponding actions are these:.

I would say to start simple with this — maybe show them about three or four different types of beans to begin with, and expand as they get used to them. This is a very simple concept, and one that is open to lots of creativity and suggestions from children.

The idea is that you are all going to move around the space like different Mr Men or Little Miss characters. If children can suggest their own characters and movements then that is great. I have only skimmed the surface here of the all the possible Mr Men and Little Miss characters that you could try.

This game could also be adapted to a more general idea of different characters from stories. They could move like the Gruffalo, or the Big Bad Wolf for example. This is realistically for children from about the age of 4 upwards it will be trickier before this age. One child is going to go first. They quite simply start a story. Top Tips — Model it first, either with another willing adult, or at least a child with good communication skills.

To make it easier, start them off with the opening line and they go from there. Walk around the room and make noises with various everyday items. Ask your child what they are. This can be done in any room — a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, living room or even outdoors.

Make sounds such as:. Adults should do it too. Take your child for a walk in the garden, down the road or to the park. There are usually enough sounds in your garden! Tell each other all the sounds you hear — leaves rustling, your dog barking, a car on the motorway, a bird chirping, a child yelling, a siren, etc.

Ask your child to close their eyes and put a timer on your phone for 30 seconds. Ask him to listen carefully and try to remember all the things he heard — in order if possible. List all the sounds that were heard and count how many different sounds there were.

With time, increase from 30 seconds to a minute of focused listening. Listen to audiobook CDs or stories on Youtube, without looking at the screen. Ask your child about the story after he has heard it. This also works with bedtime stories.

Ask your child to close his eyes and listen to you reading the story without showing the pictures. Ask him to think about how he will draw the story for you in the morning. Here is a set of short, funny stories for kids. Give your child instructions around the house or while cooking together. Make them clear. Start with one instruction. Please fetch the book next to my bed.

Increase it to two instructions. Open it and take out the recipe cut-out from the front cover. Increase this over time, until you can give 5 instructions at once.

Multiple instructions are frequently given in the classroom, making this a valuable exercise. Here are some fun 2-step directions for preschoolers. While reading to your child, ask different types of questions to develop their higher-order thinking skills. Examples are questions that require prediction, problem solving , understanding cause and effect, discussing character traits, personal opinions, etc.

Ask him to follow your instructions carefully. This is an enlightening exercise that often clearly shows if listening skills are in place or require some sharpening.

Preschoolers should get very simple instructions and only one at a time initially. Incorporate questions with the words left and right. Choose a student to begin and give the student a balloon. Ask the student to start a story. They only have to create the first sentence.

When they are finished, ask them to pass the balloon to the student on their left, who comes up with the next sentence. Continue around the room a few times. This fun, card game and cognitive remedial tool strengthens listening skills and executive functioning skills: working memory, management of distractions, attention to detail, stamina, response inhibition, as well as sustaining attention and mental shifting. For remedial purposes, Memory Master helps players learn to encode and recall a series of directives.

Players pick a card and then hear the directives from the administrator. The player then "says it" repeats back the directives , "sees it" visualizes and adds sensory details to the directives and then "shows it" acts out the directives. After a distraction, players see what they can remember. Choose a student to start and give the student a ball. Ask the student to share something that they are grateful for.

For example, "I'm grateful for this beautiful day.