The listening activities described in this section are intended to develop auditory perception and, at the same time, to establish key concepts needed for phonemic awareness and graphophonic abilities. These include the concepts of "first", "middle", "last", and left to right sequencing. They offer young children, and older children needing more support, opportunities to develop listening skills through participation in concrete experiences.



















Sound walks would fit well with the Arts Education music unit, Learning to Hear. This is the first music unit for each of grades one to five. At each grade level, this unit contains many other suggestions for good listening activities.



















Sound walks could be used in conjunction with the Grade Two Science unit on weather or the model unit on weather in the Arts Education curriculum.



















Games like this one strengthen children's understanding of first, middle, and last sounds and should be used with very young children (or older ones lacking phonemic awareness) before moving to the more abstract task of segmenting the sounds within words.





"Which sound did you hear first?" could be incorporated into the Arts Education music unit Learning to Hear or used following the reading of a book about instruments of the orchestra.





A follow up to the reading of such books could include adding instrument words to a Word Wall or a class research project involving trying to find an instrument for each letter of the alphabet and putting together an alphabet book. This project would provide opportunities for studying the instruments of various cultures as well.

Strategies and Activities

General Listening Activities

Students will:

• demonstrate emerging use of oral language to bring meaning to what they observe, feel, and hear
• demonstrate emerging interest in participating in the exploration of the patterns, sounds, and rhymes of the English language during listening, speaking, and shared reading and writing activities
• demonstrate emerging ability to use listening to understand the meaning and intent of others
• develop emerging abilities to distinguish similarities and differences in sounds.

Sound Walks

• Writing/recording materials (optional).

1. Tell the class members or smaller group that you will be taking them on a "sound walk" and that everyone will have to be very quiet in order to hear all the sounds around them.
2. Establish a purpose for the listening beginning with ideas like "Listen and see how many different sounds you can hear" and "See if you can tell who or what is making each sound."

   Remember, it's not just what you do, it's how you do it. Put the stress on enjoyment, your enthusiasm will be contagious.

3. As children are confident and competent with this focus, ask them to listen for and try to remember the softest or quietest sound and/or the loudest sound they heard. Another important focus, one that will be helpful in the development of phonemic awareness is to ask them to listen for the first sound they can hear when you signal them to begin listening. Also ask them to notice, and try and remember, the last sound they heard before you signaled that the listening part of the walk was over.
4. Other good foci for listening include asking children to listen for qualities of sounds such as pitch. Be sure to demonstrate such sound qualities in the classroom first. Additional foci for listening include:
   • the highest and lowest-pitched sound they heard
   • a sound made by something that was moving (Did it sound like it was moving closer or farther away?)
   • a sound that came from above or over their heads
   • sounds made by animals
   • sounds made by humans
   • a sound that was repeated many times
   • a sound that was only heard once
   • sounds that came from under their skin (their breathing, heartbeat, stomach rumbles).
5. Tell the children you will be asking them to talk about all the sounds they heard when you return to the classroom. Keep your walk relatively short, particularly with pre-schoolers. Have children pause in their walking from time to time in order to hear the sounds more clearly.
6. On returning to the classroom, have students describe the sounds they heard. They may simply name what they heard such as a bird or a car. Ask students to talk about the qualities of the sound as well-- "loud/soft", "screeching", "booming", etc. Accept all responses. Provide new vocabulary or elaborate on ideas as appropriate without drawing out the discussion unduly.

• Vary the walks to locations that offer different possibilities for sounds. Outdoor walks could be to the school playground with each child standing or sitting in a designated area. Have students close their eyes for better concentration. Establish a signal such as two loud claps for when the listening time begins and ends. Alternatively, you can take children on a sound walk around the immediate school neighborhood, do an indoors sound tour of the school, or you can designate some part of a nature walk or field trip as a "sound walk".
• Children can carry journals, notebooks, or small chalkboards with them in order to record the sounds they hear through drawing, writing, or invented symbols (a form of rebus technique).
• On returning to the classroom, teachers and students can compose lists of sounds they heard, make experience charts about their sound walk, or add words from their sound walk to a Word Wall (see page 122 of this resource for a description of this activity).

• The two model units in the Kindergarten curriculum, Children First, include sound walks as part of their suggested activities.
• A sound walk could follow the reading of books about animal sounds, city sounds, etc.
• A sound walk could become the focus for making a classroom book about sounds with pairs of children each contributing one page. Pages could use an alternating sentence pattern such as "We heard a soft sound. It was a _______." "We heard a loud sound. It was a _______."

"Which Sound Did You Hear First?"

• Three or four simple rhythm instruments such as sticks, cymbals, bells, or triangles
• Sets of cards, one for each student. Each set would contain individual cards depicting each instrument you will be using.

1. Lay out your instruments on a table at the front of the room. Give each child a set of cards. The first time you work with the cards and instruments, allow some time for children to become familiar with their sounds and names. For example, you could have individual children take turns demonstrating the sounds that can be made with each instrument, while other children find the card that goes with that instrument and name it.
2. Tell students that you are going to play a listening game with the instruments and that they will need to close their eyes for part of this game. (Blindfolds could also be used.)
3. The game would also work well with a second adult or a student helper present. In this case, the table with the instruments would be behind the children so that their backs are to it and they need not close their eyes. While you select and play the instruments, the other adult or student helper could be at the front facing the children and observing which cards they select each round.
4. The game begins with children's eyes closed. Make a sound with one instrument. Ask children to open their eyes and hold up the card that matches the sound they heard. As the game progresses, you can play two sounds while children's eyes are closed and ask them to hold up the card for the sound they heard first. Follow this by asking them to hold up the card for the sound they heard second or last.
5. Eventually, you will want to play three and four sounds in a sequence and have children arrange their cards in the order in which they heard the sounds. (Demonstrate left to right ordering as needed.)
6. Remember to keep each occasion that you play this game short and enjoyable. Quit while the children still want to "play it again".

• Rather than reproduce a set of cards yourself, give children blank cards and have them each draw their own pictures of the instruments you will be using--one instrument per card. You could have them include the initial consonant of each instrument's name as well.
• To keep the game interesting and challenging, tell the students that they must be very good listeners because sometimes you will try to trick them. Tell them you will need a student helper in order to make the game harder. Take the student helper aside for instructions, then using the helper for one instrument, play two instruments at once. Ask students to hold up the card for the sound that they heard. See if any of them hold up two cards.
• Continue to vary the game including new sequences. For example, play two sounds, followed by a single sound, followed by a second single sound. Ask, "Did you hear the two sounds together at the beginning, the middle, or the end of my sequence? Arrange your cards in the order in which you heard the sounds. Where two sounds were heard at the same time, put those cards on top of each other."
• Try playing three sounds together without enlisting a third helper!
• Later in the year, you could bring a new set of instruments in and have children make the cards for them. They could put the names of the instruments on the cards as well as, or instead of, drawing the pictures.

"What's My Pattern?"

• Hands and pencils.

1. Tell children you are going to play a listening game where you will clap or tap a pattern and they should wait, and then on your signal, try to duplicate the pattern. The easiest way to signal that you are finished and that it is their turn, is simply to hold your hand out to students without saying anything--for example, clap a short sequence and then motion in students' direction with one hand.
2. With very young children, begin by making one clap or tap only and ask, "How many sounds did you hear?" Gradually increase the difficulty and decrease your questioning.

   This is a good activity for sharpening students' attentiveness at any point in the day.

3. When students know the game, do not give any advance notice, simply clap a pattern and motion in their direction. You might call this "Drop everything and clap".

   For more listening activities, refer to the Arts Education curriculum guides for Grades One to Three, 1991. The suggested activities for Units One, Two, and Three all contain many good listening games and explorations.