Intermediate Listening Games  

Activity name and materials required

How to do the activity

Key principles for doing the activity/ comments

Rhyming pairs game

Pairs of pictures that rhyme (e.g. WH Smith ‘Rhyming cards’ or make your own)

Rhyming lotto (Early Learning Centre or Living and Learning)

1. Discuss what “rhyme” means. Say a few words and get the children to suggest words that rhyme with them.

2. Make sure your cards are in pairs. Deal out the cards, giving one half of each pair to a child, and keeping one half to yourself. Say, “who has something that rhymes with …?” The child with the appropriate card has to identify themselves.

You could also try this with a rhyming lotto game.

Clap, slap, click

1. The group sits in a circle on the floor.

2. The adult establishes a rhythm, which everyone copies – clap your hands, slap your thighs, click your fingers.

3. When the whole group is doing this, the adult says their own name, followed by a child’s name (e.g. “Sophie and Foyzol”). 4. The child whose name is mentioned then says their name followed by another child’s name and so on.

5. All the time, try to continue the movements at the same time as speaking.

Use hand-over-hand actions with any children struggling to establish the rhythm.

Map – listening group room

Map of the room for each child.

Doll’s house size people

Each child has a copy of the map, the adult describes the route from one part of the room to another, and the children say where they have ended up. Some children may need to have a doll’s house person and physically make them walk round the map.

Let the children have a turn to describe a route.

Do this/do that

Explain that you are going to do lots of different actions. If you say, “do this” the children have to copy you. If you say, “do that” the children don’t copy you but continue to do the previous action