Download - Early Years Oral Games & Activities. Sound and Word Awareness / Listening Games Source: Early Childhood Listening and Speaking Games and Activities Compiled

Early Years Oral Games & Activities


Sound and Word Awareness / Listening Games

Source: Early Childhood Listening and Speaking Games and ActivitiesCompiled by Kelly Birkett 2005

Activity: Detection of Sound

Equipment required: blindfold

How to Play: A blindfolded student stands in the

middle of the circle of students.

A child in the circle makes a sound / says a word.

The blindfolded child identifies the student who made the

sound.




Activity: Musical Statues

Equipment required: music (recorded or played)

How to Play: Students move freely to the music.

When the music stops the children must freeze.

The last child to freeze is out.

The winner is the student left after ever child has been

eliminated.




Activity: Repeat Teacher

Equipment required: None

How to Play: Teacher tells the students a sequence

of numbers, animals, names, colours etc.

Student/s repeat the sequence back to the teacher




Activity: Sound Discrimination

Equipment required: Items for creating noises

How to Play: Students listen to two sounds (eyes

closed) – whistle, bell, clap etc,

Students identify if the sounds are the same or different

Repeat this with words

NB This activity can provide some initial information about

student hearing loss.




Activity: Sound Discrimination 2

Equipment required: Instruments

How to Play: Teacher uses a hidden triangle, drum,

tambourine – link a movement to each instrument (eg

marching = drum, shaking = tambourine, tiptoe = triangle)

When the children here each instrument they move to

match it.




Activity: Clapped Rhythm


How to Play: Teacher claps a simple rhythm

pattern.

Students copy the rhythm.

Students can be selected to lead the rhythm.




Activity: Making Sounds

Equipment required: Tissues

How to Play: Teacher makes a single phoneme /

sound.

Students copy the sound.

Students feel their throat, cheeks etc as they are making

the sound. Eg mmm

Students watch each other create phonemes – watching

what is happening with tongue, lips

Students hold a tissue in front of their mouth, and identify if

a sound uses breath or not eg ‘p’ – yes, ‘n’ – no




Activity: What’s Left


How to Play: Teacher says a number of compound

words. Then identifies one of the words which make up

the compound word. Eg rainbow – bow

The student identifies the word that is left. Eg rain.

Other words

Starfish, midnight, cowboy, sandpit, hilltop,




Activity: Compound Words


How to Play: Teacher identifies a word.

Students make up as many compound words using this

word.

Eg book – bookshelf, bookbag

Foot – football, footpath

Sun – Sunday, sunrise, sunset




Activity: Syllables


How to Play: Teacher models clapping out the beat

of syllables in words – particularly words from familiar texts

Students join in clapping out the syllables with teacher.

Students lead in the clapping of syllables.


Rhyming Games


Activity: Rhyming Pairs


How to Play: Teacher says two words, then

identifies if the words rhyme or not (hold up yes/no card, or

make a ‘ding’ sound for yes/ ‘bahbow’ sound for no

Students identify if the words rhyme or not

Student can lead the rhyming game

Variation:

Teacher says three words

Students identify the word that doesn’t rhyme.


Rhyming Games


Activity: Rhyming Snap

Equipment required: Cards with rhyming pairs

How to Play: Students play snap

Students win when they snap on rhyming pairs


Rhyming Games


Activity: Rhyming Match

Equipment required: Images of a variety items

How to Play: Teacher says a word

Students identify an image/word which rhymes with the

word

Students can take on the role of teacher – identifying a

word for the students to find a rhyme with


Rhyming Games


Activity: Rhyming in Texts

Equipment required: familiar texts

How to Play: Students identify words that rhyme in

familiar texts.

Students can develop rhyming games based on the texts.


Rhyming Games


Activity: Oral Rhyming



Students provide a rhyming word, orally


Rhyming Games


Activity: Finish the Rhyme


How to Play: Teacher says a sentence / poem. Eg

‘there once was a cat who was very …’

Students provide a rhyming word to complete the sentence

eg. ‘fat’


Beginning Sounds / Alliterations


Activity: Same or Different


How to Play: Teacher says two or a series of words.

Students identify if the words start with the same initial

sound (Yes/No)

Students identify the initial sound of each series of words

with the same initial sound.




Activity: Minimal Pairs


How to Play: Students hold a tissue in front of their

mouth.

Teacher identifies minimal pairs (k/g, t/d, p/b)

Students say the minimal pairs and identify the difference

when speaking into a tissue.

Place finger on the front of the throat and identify the way

our voice vibrates for the following minimal pairs (s/z.

sh/zh, ch/j)




Activity: What’s The Sound



Students identify the starting sound

Students take on the teacher role – says a word

Other students identify initial sounds




Activity: Students Name


How to Play: Students group themselves according

the first sound in their first name

Students group themselves according to the first sound in

their surname.




Activity: I Spy

Equipment required: A selection of objects

(familiar for ESL students)

How to Play: A selection of common objects (each

with a different starting sound) are put on display for the

whole class to see.

One student is selected to go first, saying: ‘I spy with my

little eye something beginning with…’

The group call out the object beginning with that sound.




Activity: Feely Box/Bag

Equipment required: A selection of objects

(familiar for ESL students), Feely Bag/Box

How to Play: Feely bag/box contain a selection of

familiar objects

Students take turns to reach in and attempt to identify the

object and the sound it starts with.




Activity: Brainstorming


How to Play: Students sit in a circle

Teacher identifies a target initial sound

Students take turns to identify words that begin with with

the target initial sound eg bag, ball, bike, bat




Activity: Picture Dictionary

Equipment required: Posters with letters of the

alphabet on each sheet.

How to Play: Students cut out pictures from

magazines, draw pictures,

Students place the pictures on the alphabet sheets –

identifying initial sounds




Activity: Odd One Out

Equipment required: Picture cards with matching

initial sounds

How to Play: Teacher shows the students three

picture cards – two picture cards have the same initial

sound.

Students name each picture and identify the matching

initial sounds, then identifying the odd one out and the

initial sound




Activity: Tongue Twisters


How to Play: Teacher says a tongue twister.

Students repeat the tongue twister

Tongue twisters start slowly and can be sped up.

A challenge to say the tongue twister as many times

without a mistake.




Activity: Oral Close


How to Play: Teacher says a sentence with a

missing word. The initial sound of the missing word is

provided as a hint.eg ‘I went shopping and I bought a m…’

‘A boys name is D…’ etc


Breaking words into Sounds


Activity: Final Sounds

Equipment required: Picture Cards

How to Play: Teacher selects a Picture Card.

Students identify the word

Teacher and students break the word into sounds and

identify the final sound

Student selects a Picture Card

Students identify the word and the sounds, then final

sound.




Activity: Final Sounds Chain


How to Play: Students sit in a circle

Teacher says a word

First student identifies a word that starts with the final

sound of the teachers word (eg teacher’s word – bell, first

student’s word – lion)

Students take turns to say a word starting with the final

sound of the previous word.




Activity: Sort According To Sound

Equipment required: Picture Cards

How to Play: Students are given a selection of

pictures.

Students sort them according to the final sounds.


Listening

Source: A few ideas from Jean McDonaldAboriginal HearingKatherine Education Office

Activity: Dead Ants


How to Play: Children act out the movement of

different animals as they are called out by teacher eg

Jumping kangaroo, swimming fish, slithering snake etc.

When the teacher calls out ‘dead ant’ the students lie on

their backs with their arms and legs in the air

Students take turns to give instructions.


Listening


Activity: Partners


How to Play: Work in pairs.

You can only have the number of things touching the

ground that I call out. Eg 5 – 2 feet, 1 bottom, 2 hands

Try working with 3 or 4 in a group

The number called out could be identified by the teacher or

could be based on a dice roll / playing card


Listening


Activity: Hot and Cold

Equipment required: Object

How to Play: Hide and object – as a child searches

for it, the other children say ‘hot’ if they are close and ‘cold’

if they are far away.

Students can also grade the closeness to the item by

using ‘warmer’ and ‘cooler’

You can use a bell or chime when the child looking gets

close to the object.


Listening


Activity: Animals


How to Play: Children act out and make the sounds

of:

Dog, chicken, horse, monkey, snake, pig, sheep


Listening


Activity: Shhh – I Can Hear a …


How to Play: Teacher says, ‘Shhh – I can hear a

….it makes the sound … eg barking

Children guess the object.

Students take the role of the teacher.


Listening


Activity: Related Words


How to Play: Children sit in a circle.

Pass an object around – only the person holding the object

can speak.

Start with a word – children take turns to say a word that is

related to the word said before eg ball, bounce, catch,

kick, football, Essendon, bombers, etc


Listening


Activity: Celebrity Heads

Equipment required: Board and chalk

How to Play: 2 or 3 children sit with their backs to

the board

Write, draw or stick an image on the board behind the

person

Children ask closed (Yes/No) questions of the class about

their word/drawing


Listening


Activity: Who Has My Tail?

Equipment required: Board and chalk

How to Play: Children sit in circle, one child in the

middle with eyes closed. (Child could also be at the front

of the class with back to class).

Put a ‘tail’ (eg a ruler) behind the child in the middle

Point to one child who takes the ‘tail’ and hides it behind

his/her back.

Child in middle says, ‘Who has taken my tail?’

The child who has the ‘tail’ says, ‘I have.’

The child in the middle has 3 guesses to identify the child

with the ‘tail’.


Listening


Activity: What’s in the box?

Equipment required: Objects and Box

How to Play: Put an object in a box or a container.

Children try to identify it by asking questions.

Teacher only answers yes, no or maybe


Listening


Activity: Who is the Kitten?


How to Play: Children sit with their eyes closed.

Teacher or selected student tiptoes around and gently

touches someone on the shoulder.

That person meows (or other noise).

Other children guess who is the kitten


Listening


Activity: Oral Cloze


How to Play: Teacher leaves out an identified

language structure/feature when telling or reading a story

(eg the verbs)

The children identify the missing word.

Download - Early Years Oral Games & Activities. Sound and Word Awareness / Listening Games Source: Early Childhood Listening and Speaking Games and Activities Compiled

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