Kindergarteners are Great Listeners

Listening skills are essential for children to build cognitive and behavioral skills.  Children need to grasp solid listening skills at an early age in order to develop the ability to interact and communicate with the world efficiently.  The bustling kindergarten classroom is a great place to build the foundation of listening skills by having students practice paying attention to what they see and hear around them.  In kindergarten we watched Howard B Wigglebottom Learns to Listen on The We Do Listen Foundation's website. They have a variety of animated storybooks featuring Howard in case you cannot find a print copy of the book.

After the video, we talked about what skills we need to practice in order to be great listeners at school and at home.  Students helped me label Howard with different ideas that show you are really listening with your body.  We labeled raising our hand to talk, ears listening, eyes watching, mouths waiting, hands in your lap and legs criss-cross apple sauce. 

Then I had students cut and glue the things they should be doing to show their whole body is listening.  I found the free downloadable handout here on F is for First Grade's blog.