Learning about the 5 senses is an exciting thematic unit for young learners as they are curious about the world around them and use their senses to explore and learn. These Sense of Hearing Activities will make learning so much more fun.
Sense of Hearing Activities
Creative Space
Play dough, stamps, scissors, lacing beads and cards, puzzles and blocks are set out for the children to choose from, and get creative during this 30 minute period.
Sense of Hearing Circle Time
Everyday during Circle Time we do the morning routine, which includes the Calendar and ‘Number, Color, Shape and Letter of the week’. We then read a story, sing a few songs and do a group activity.
On every Monday we change the ‘Classroom Helpers’ Classroom Jobs. Each child has a name card on a popsicle stick, and they get to choose their job of the week.
Sense of Hearing Circle Time Activities
Activity 1: Weekend News
Every Monday morning each child gets a chance to talk about their weekend and what they did. The children then draw a picture in the ‘weekend news’ journal, and the teacher writes down what they have said.
Activity 2: Jamming Session
Listen to I am the Music Man. Talk about all the instruments in the song. Hand out some instruments to the children and experiment with loud and soft sounds, fast and slow tempo etc.
Activity 3: Animal Action Cards
Show the children the action cards. They act out whatever is on the card. Or play charades. Show one child the card and ask them to make that animals sound. Whoever guesses right gets the next card.
Activity 4: Telephone, Telephone
Children sit in a circle. The first child in the line or circle whispers a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing to their right.
Children whisper the phrase to their neighbors until it reaches the last player in line. The last person in line says the phrase out loud.
Activity 5: Memory Game
Review all the animal sounds from the story Polar Bear, Polar Bear. Show the children the cards for the activity and match the sound the animal make to the picture of the animal. Place the cards face down in the middle of the circle. Children take turns to turn around one from each side. If the cards match, they get to keep it. Continue until there are no cards left.
Sense of Hearing Songs
Ten action songs all about the Sense of Hearing, to get those bodies moving and grooving. Click on the image to head over to the post.
Sense of Hearing Booklist
Eleven of the best story picture books that are perfect for the Sense of Sight theme. Click on the image below to read what these books are about.
Sense of Hearing Literacy Activities
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?
I use this book in my class during the ‘Sense of Hearing’ topic. It teaches the little learners all about the different sounds animals make and that we use our ears to hear these. It also promises for lots of fun copying all these sounds!
Activity 1: SEQUENCING ACTIVITY
What is Sequencing:
Sequencing is a very important aspect of communication for a child. It refers to the ability of a child to understand how objects and events occur in a logical sequential manner. Understanding this skill enables the child to retell stories and recreate events.
What you need:
- Sequencing Activity Sheet
- Coloring Pencils
- Scissors
- Glue
How to use this resource:
After reading the story, or watching the read aloud on YouTube, I play some animal sounds to the children (just search for example ‘lion sound’ in a search engine). I ask the children to close their eyes and to listen to each sound, and to guess which animal makes the sound. The children then pretend to be these animals and move around the class while bellowing and roaring and hissing.
After handing out the activity sheet, the children color the pictures and cut along the lines to get two strips. They glue these strips together. Make sure the pictures on the strips are in the same order as in the book (lion, hippo, flamingo, zebra, snake, elephant, leopard, peacock, walrus, zookeeper, children). The teacher helps the children to cut on the lines on the polar bear and to pull the strips through.
When everyone is done, we listen to the story again. The children pull the strips as each new animal appears while making the animal sound.
Activity 2: Polar Bear Role Play
Read the book again. Ask children to choose a picture of an animal, color it, cut it out and stick a paper straw on the back. Children use these stick puppets to re-tell the story.
Activity 3: Sense of Hearing Scavenger Hunt
Talk about our ears and how we can hear different sounds. Hand out the ‘Sense of Hearing Scavenger Hunt’ Sheet. Look at all the pictures and ask children to name them. Do they think we can hear all these things?
Clip the activity sheets on a clip board and take the children on a walk outside. Everyone sits down somewhere quiet and listen. Anything that they can hear, they need to color/ circle on the scavenger hunt sheet. Once you get back to the class talk about all the things they could hear.
Activity 4: Something Green Show-and-Tell
Seeing the the color of the week is green, I asked all the kids to wear green on this day as well as bring in something green to show their friends and to talk about it. They all loved this activity. Especially when they could share and play with their green things afterwards.
Sense of Hearing Math Activities
Teddy Bear Counters Centers
Teddy Bear Counters are one of my favorite Math manipulatives, and I thought it would be a great ad-on to this unit, seeing that we did the Brown Bear book. I created 6 centers that can be used throughout the year, and that also goes perfectly with this topic.
Color Sort:
Place a tray full of teddy bear counters in front of each child and let them sort the counters according to their colors on the sorting mat.
Pattern Cards
Give each child a set of the pattern cards and a tray of teddy bear counters and ask them to complete the patterns by placing the correct colored bears on the white spaces.
Grab & Count
Place a tray full of teddy bear counters in front of each child. Ask them to first grab a handful with their left hands and place it on the teddy bear on the left and then repeat with their right hands. They then count and record how many teddy bears there are on the mats altogether.
Roll & Cover
This game can be played in pairs, small groups or individually. Children take turns rolling the teddy bear dice and covering the same colored teddy bear on their ‘Roll & Cover’ mats. The first one that covered all the teddy bears wins.
Number Cards 1 – 20
These cards can be used in a million different ways. Children can put the same amount of teddy bears on each number card, or they can put the cards in order from 1 – 20 and then place the same amount of teddy bears in a row underneath each card.
Addition Cards:
Each child gets their own addition mat, a tray full of teddy bear counters and a dice. They throw the dice, place the same amount of counters on the first teddy bear, and record the number. Repeat for the second teddy bear. When they are done, they add and record how many teddy bears there are altogether.
Sense of Hearing Art Activity: Music Shakers
I found these great ideas for DIY Music Shakers over at picklebums.com. In my class we used recycled plastic soda and milk bottles, filled these with rice and decorated them with colorful washing tape. Click on the image below to head over to picklebums.com for some more ideas and fun music games.
Sense of Hearing Science Activities
Activity 1: Quacking Paper Cup Ducks
What you need:
- Paper cups (1 per child)
- Yellow Tempera paint (or yellow paper cups)
- String
- Sponge (cut up in 2 x 1 inch squares – 1 per child)
- A pen (to make holes in the bottom of the cup
- Yellow and Orange construction paper (for the beak and wings)
- Googly eyes (2 per child)
Ready for the activity:
Children paint the cups using the yellow tempera paint, and wait for it to dry. The teacher punches to holes through the bottom of the cup using a pen or a sharp pencil. When the cups are dry, the children string the string through the holes and the teacher helps them to tie the string inside the cup. The children can now stick the googly eyes, the wings and the beaks on the ducks.
The teacher helps the children to tie the bottom of the string around the cut-out sponges. The children can now dip the sponges in water and use it to wet the string. The paper duck is ready to Quack! Simply pinch the string and move downwards.
Phonics
Phonics is taught in order from A – Z and we spend the first semester on learning all the letter sounds. The second semester is spent on Word Families and Sight Words. We learn 2 letter sounds a week through songs, crafts, centers, cut-and-paste activities, tracing & coloring. This week we will learn about the letters Kk & Ll.
Monday: Letter Introduction
Every Monday, the teacher introduces the letters of the week. We watch the Jolly Phonics Letters K & L songs and do the actions, then listen to the Bounce Patrol letters K & J songs. Afterwards, we play the letters Kk & Ll games on Starfall.
The teacher then shows the children the word cards and ask them to name the pictures and to place it under the correct letter on the word wall.
Tuesday & Thursday: Letter Crafts
Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for Letter Crafts. The children all love these. For this week we did the ‘K is for Kangaroo’ and ‘L is for Lion’ letters Crafts.
Wednesday: Tracing Letters and Beginning Sounds Centers
Friday: Beginning Sounds Sorting and Cut-and-Paste
Find the whole weeks printables, centers, activities and lesson plan in one convenient pack by clicking on the image below.
