Crafts for Listening Skills

Storytime helps children practice good listening skills.

Parents and teachers should help young children develop good listening skills at an early age. Good listening is a skill that will benefit a child in his career, in his personal relationships and in other aspects of life. Parents and teachers can use crafts to help young children develop, comprehend and practice good listening skills. Listening themed crafts not only provide a tactile lesson, but a visual reminder of how and when to apply good listening skills.

Visual Reminder Crafts

Use visual aid crafts to teach children about listening. Draw a picture of two ears onto white paper and allow the children to color and cut them out. Attach the ears to a plastic headband or a piece of elastic so the kids can wear the ears on their own heads. Use the ear craft as a visual reminder that the children should be listening to the teacher or parent. Ask the children to put the ears on at the beginning of story time or when important instructions are being given. Draw an image of an ear on a piece of cardboard and attach it to a dowel stick. Silently hold the ear image aloft to remind the class to listen during class.

Game Crafts

Use a listening-themed craft in conjunction with an activity that will help develop a child's listening skill. Have students make headphones by gluing two pom poms to either end of pipe cleaners and bending the pipe cleaners to resemble headphones. Hide all the headphones around the classroom and then give the students verbal instructions in order to find the headphones. Reward good listeners with a prize.

Interactive Listening Craft

Engage children in an interactive listening craft that will encourage them to put their good listening skills into practice. Make a telephone out of two tin cans by punching a hole in the bottom of both cans, putting a string through the bottoms of the cans and tying a washer to both ends to keep the string in place. Then pull the string taut and have one child speak into one can while another puts her ear up to the other can.

Other Listening Skill Crafts

Create a chart to reward students who demonstrate good listening skills. Write the student's names on an ear shaped chart and add a sticker next to the name of each student who shows he is a good listener. Award a prize to the person who wins the most stickers after a week.