Kindergarten Listening Activities

Listening skills are important in improving reading, speaking and comprehension.

By the time children reach kindergarten, they are able to listen and focus for between 15 and 20 minutes, understand complex sentences, and question concepts or ideas they do not understand. Developmentally, kindergarten is an ideal time to enhance a child's listening skills. With a series of fun and interactive activities, you can teach children how to become active and effective listeners.

Tasks

Giving a task to a child is one way to develop listening skills because successful completion depends on following your instructions. Start by giving children a one-step task, like hanging their coats up. On successful completion you can develop this skill by increasing the number of steps in the task. A more complex example would be "stop writing, close your book and put down your pencil." This kind of activity can also improve classroom behavior and management.

Comprehension

A listening activity can be easily incorporated into kindergarten story time. Before you read aloud, emphasis the importance of good listening and tell them that effective listening means looking at the speaker. While reading, stop at any point during the story and ask one child to repeat your last sentence. This will ensure that children are on task. On completion, ask children a series of questions about the plot and characters to check their level of understanding and listening.

Simon Says

A game of "Simon Says" is an easy and fun way to practice listening skills with a kindergarten class. As with any task activity, start with simple tasks with only one step, such as sitting down or standing on one leg. If you suspect children are distracted form the game, give them an instruction that doesn't begin with "Simon Says." If children are listening, they will not follow this instruction.

Chinese Whispers

This fun activity will develop listening skills and can be done during quiet or circle time. The teacher should come up with a sentence and whisper it to the child on her right. When it reaches the last child, he must say the sentence out loud. The aim is to keep the sentence unchanged when it is passed around the class. As with other listening activities, you can increase the complexity and number of sentences to challenge students.

References

• Education: Kindergarten Listening Milestones
• Preschool Rock: Kindergarten Listening Skills

Resources

• Baby Center: Fun Activities to Promote Listening Skills
• Preschool Express: Listening Games