The Five Senses: Sense of Hearing

Mr. Broom can hear! 

 

 

I showed the children the diagrams of the ear on the Prezi and we talked about the different parts of the ear.  They loved knowing the fun fact about the three smallest bones in their bodies being in their ears!

 



 



We read The Listening Walk by Paul Showers.

We were just about to take our very own "listening walk," when we had... a fire drill!  No kidding!  It was actually perfect timing, because when we came inside, we had lots of sounds to list on our chart.
I asked the children what they would hear if a dog were hungry, a cat wanted to come inside, someone told a funny joke, if someone had a cold, if daddy is sleeping, if someone called on the phone, if bacon were cooking on the stove, if a baby were hungry, if pigs were hungry,  and finally if they were a mouse in a house ( for quiet! :) .

We had a great discussion about why listening is so important.  Why do we need to listen to teachers? friends? policemen? parents? fire drills?  I had them teach each other why it was so important to listen.  It was fun to listen to the reasons. 

We played a quick game of Simon Says just to be sure our ears were working well.  Then we had lots of fun with the sounds on our Listening Lotto games.  Sometimes I actually play this  game, but today we had lots going on, so we just enjoyed hearing and naming the different sounds, trying to see who could guess the sound fastest.



 

While the children were writing their five favorite sounds to hear in their books, I called up one at a time to talk to each one on our "phone."  I asked each child a question and they answered me.  This is as simple as can be, and always a hit. I wanted to be sure I had a chance to talk to each child before I put these out for exploration and they get tangled up, which will inevitably happen. Oh well!

 



 

 

Here are some favorite things to hear!

 

I have a listening activity for tomorrow with Easter eggs filled with different things that the children can guess by listening. Ages ago- I used film canisters for this. :)  I don't even think I could find them anymore.  The eggs work well.  I just tape them shut with packaging tape and they stay shut really well.  I play this with the whole group and we try to match the pictures I have of what is inside with the sound each egg makes. I have two sets of eggs so the children can also match the eggs by sound.   My eggs are filled with rice, cotton balls, sand, a super ball, nails,and pennies.  After we play this together as a class, I leave the eggs out so the children can play with it on their own. 

 

I love to share this poem with the children:

 

The Tiniest Sound by Mel Evans

I used to think

the tiniest sound in the world

might be a baby snowflake

leaving a little white cloud

to drift gently down

through a misty sky

to the softest spot

on the tip-top tassel

of a snuggly cap

on the snoozely head

of a furry

baby

bunny.

What do you think…?

This is a great introduction to an interactive writing lesson about sounds.  We came up with lots of quiet, teeny tiny sounds like a snake in a field, tip toeing to sneak up on someone, blowing a dandelion to make a wish, a leaf falling, a butterfly flying, whispers, and saying quiet prayers.  You could come up with any kind of sound lists.  I was thinking we may make some posters and leave them up around the room for the children to add to about sounds:  Farm Sounds, LOUD sounds, Forest Sounds, City Sounds, School Sounds, Family Sounds, Dinner Sounds, Happy Sounds,...  it is endless!
 
Thank you for visiting! 
Happy Teaching,
Carolyn