Listen!

Target Words

bell, blaring, clanging, creak, ears, listen, noise, rumble, siren

Materials

none

Directions

1. Open up your ears! There are sounds all around us. Try being absolutely silent with your child for one minute (time it on your watch) and just listen. What do you hear? The refrigerator running? A distant siren? A truck rumbling by? At the end of the minute, talk about what you heard. Imitate each sound and try to guess what made it.
2. Go for a Listening Walk outside and use your ears to explore your neighborhood. Imitate interesting noises that you hear, and describe the sound. Is it blaring or clanging? Rattling or buzzing? Crunchy or creaky? Follow a sound to its source to discover what is making that noise.

Extension

Play "Guess That Sound." Gather a bunch of things that you can make different sounds with. Have everyone close their eyes and turn their backs while you make a sound with one of the objects. Try ringing a bell, crumpling a piece of paper, tapping on a pot, shaking beans in a cup, dragging a chair, blowing across the top of a soda bottle, etc. Can the others guess what is making that sound? Let someone else be the sound maker and continue the game.

Related Books

• Max Found Two by Brian Pinkney
  Max drums and taps on anything he finds. Try it yourselves and enjoy the different sounds.
• The Listening Walk by Paul Showers
  A father and child go for a walk and listen to the sounds they hear along the way.
• Jazz by Lisa Wheeler
  Invite kids to move to the beat of the words as you read about a snazzy-jazzy baby and his family.