Listening activities

[Jadey]

Does anybody have any ideas of any activities I can carry out with a large group of children aged 3-5 to improve their listening skills?
I've tried simon says and bingo but is there anything else that others use in your own settings?

[kazzy67]

sitting down and listening to you tell a story. but letting the children offer ideas as to what is happening in the story or what may happen next or on the next page. this shows you are also listening to the children. ask them to wait until you are in a part of the story which they can offer their ideas. at the end of the page maybe or an interesting part of the page.
listening to instructions such as safety in the kitchen and following recipes when cooking or baking. i used the cooking activity when i did my nvq which shows listening to instructions, and it covers all 6 areas of learning too.
for younger children listening to you acting out a rhyming song and copying you, head shoulders knees and toes or 5 little ducks

[laurajo]

how about listening to different sounds?
have a selection of things that make a noise- musical instruments jibber jabbers, animal noise, shakers, scrunchy paper, anything you can think of. put a few out then put a cloth or soething over thme and shake one, play one etc then ask the children which one made the noise, play 2 or 3 of the props leaving the right one till last - hopefully they will tell you first two are wrong.

my friend also said he uses the animal carnival cd - play it asking the children to listern and try to descibe what animal it sounds like, eg does it soundlike its flying, slithering , bouncing etc then show a few pictures of animals and see if they can match the right animal to the title of the track