Speaking and Listening Activity Ideas

7/28/2019 Speaking and Listening Activity Ideas

1/5

Set collaborative tasks such as asking a group to make a large

construction model together. Ask a group to make up a story, plan a bus

journey in the role play area together.

Use a microphone, shell, hat or other object to pass round the circle

at news time. Children take turns to talk when they are holding the

object, others listen.

Discuss several childrens ideas for a story or poem, model

incorporating more than one idea and accounting for everyones

contribution. Use circle time to model negotiating skills by, for

example, planning an area of the room and what to resource it with.

Encourage groups to set-up activities such as large outdoor equipment

(under supervision). Stimulate talking by using materials in a

surprising way, for example add real food to the home corner, or hide

special objects in the sand. Provide resources that encourage writing

in the role play area such as forms, lists, tickets etc. What would

you see at a garage, a park, a supermarket?

Describe the contents of a feely bag, or box.

Retell a story in own words.

Recounting experiences, news.

Act out simple roles.

Telephone conversations with teacher, with peers.

Circle time everyone encouraged to take their turn and contributesomething eg. my favourite toy.

Recall time telling the others what they have done during a session.

Storing using small world imaginative play materials e.g. zoo, farm,

playmobil. Make tape recorders available for use in their

spontaneous play.

Use a tape recorder to record messages appropriate for the role play

area eg. train announcements, announcements in the doctors surgery.One child talks about an experience, event or favourite toy, the others then ask

questions to find out more about it. One of the other children retells the same event.

Bring a special object to the circle. The first child says a word to

describe it, the second says that word and adds one of their own, the

third says the 2 previous words and then adds their own and so it goes

on.

Listen to a taped story, turn the tape off then draw some pictures to

go with the main events of the story.

Play Chinese whispers.

Stop and go games in the hall, or outside using sounds.


2/5

Memory games I went to market and I bought

.

Nonsense sentences spot the deliberate mistake.

Music and movement different movements to different tempos.

Clapping patterns to rhymes, childrens names etc. Guess the sound.

Sound lotto.

Matching sounds repeating a sound made by an object or instrument.

Listening walks.

Sound effect stories, playing the right effect at the right point.

Simon says, robot to controller.

Direction games.

Making body sounds behind a screen, children repeat or guess.

Listen before you move eg. everyone with blue eyes line up for lunch.

How far does a sound travel?

How long does a sound last?

Where am I? Child sits in the middle of the room, closes eyes and

points to the direction from which the sound is coming.

Story tapes to listen to children make own tapes, teacher read,

parent read. Make up poems, songs and stories as a whole class and

scribe them on to a white board.

Make class story and song books.

Interpret meaning and feelings of characters through role play.

Transform the home corner into an imaginary setting eg. the house of

the three bears, grandmas cottage, the giants castle.

Make up poems and rhymes to a pattern.

Make up songs to existing tunes, or create new verses to well known

songs.

Write, paint, move, dance, to rhymes and songs. Practice writing

patterns to well known nursery rhymes eg. Jack and Jill went up the

hill, Humpty Dumpty and This is the way the farmer rides. Sayrhyme in head and stop. Where did we stop? Miss out words from

rhymes and movement poems and do an action instead eg. head and

shoulders, knees and toes.

Develop pupils capacity to reflect upon what they have heard by giving

them time to sit quietly with their eyes closed and asking them to

think about an event or character in the story.

Set-up an inviting book corner with high quality books.

Read stories regularly and when possible have adults available to read

during the session.


3/5

Share stories, one to one, in small groups, in bigger groups. Encourage

children to borrow books to take home.

Carry out reading interviews. Ask pupils to talk about the books they

have chosen.

Read big books, or enlarged text to share a story with a small or wholegroup.

Help children to develop a critical awareness of their favourite book,

author, illustrator.

Make books and stories fun by using props to illustrate a story eg. a

box of items, or a large paper bag with the sequence of events

illustrated on smaller bags, which can be brought out one at a time;

making pictures to put up on an easel, or flannel board; using puppets

for characters finger, hand, stick, shadow, sock etc.

Sort the books in the book corner into types:

poetry, information, traditional stories, favourite

stories, pop-up books, etc.

Encourage children to sort and tidy.

Encourage children to care for books and put them away properly.

Visit the library.

Start a class library with a system for borrowing books.

Arrange book sharing sessions with parents before school, or at a set

time during the day. Use big books to teach the skills of handling books eg. turning the

page.

Make up some rhyming words, rhyming with their names for example (see

Professor Dog Troupes Music Tape).

Explore the meaning of words through stories, songs, poems and

rhymes.

Introduce new vocabulary through topic work, information books,

posters, pictures etc.

Display new words on the walls. Passwords word of the week.

Play classification games.

Guess the odd one out.

Riddles What am I?

Questioning games What am I thinking of?

Description games using a screen one child describes and the other

tries to recreate.

Encourage reciting of poems and rhymes to the

whole class.


4/5

Encourage the use of please and thank you at snack time.

Vary the audience according to the confidence of the child. (eg. 1-1,

small group, whole class).

Send children to other children or other classes with simple messages.

Class assemblies and celebrations for parents. Show and tell, review sessions, stimulus + response songs.

Use the book The Elephant and the Bad Baby to stimulate a

discussion about saying please and thank you.

Transform the home corner into real life

situations eg. shop, hospital, optician, railway

station, imaginary situations eg. desert island,

space ship, under the sea.

Plan the role play area with the children. What will they need? From whom can they borrow things? What will

they need to make themselves?

Discuss the range of activities they might carry out in the role play

area.

Model roles for them to copy. Demonstrate activities.

Bring in artefacts as a stimulus eg. a message in a bottle with a

problem to solve.

Devise a phone message.

Act out favourite stories, using dressing upclothes and props eg. the enormous turnip. Make artefacts for the role

play area.

Discuss feelings and emotions in relation to events and characters in

stories.

Use photos and pictures to discuss peoples facial expressions and

body language.

Make up stories to act out in the role play area.

Use review and circle time to talk about activities

or news.

Encourage children to describe to each other how they made

something.

Encourage children to talk about their feelings at circle time (Box of

feelings).

Look at pictures of different peoples faces and guess how they are

feeling.

Discuss the classroom code of behaviour and reasons for making rules

and how people might feel when they are broken.


5/5

Encourage children to tell you what they plan to do before they begin

an activity and what resources they will need, ask them what order

they will need to do things in.

Use appropriate stories to stimulate discussion about feelings.

Recall special events such as birthdays, weddings, holidays, the arrival of new siblings.

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Speaking and Listening Activity Ideas