Animal antics listening game

'What the Ladybird heard' is a fab book by the fantastic Julia Donaldson (of 'The Gruffalo' fame). In the book a ladybird does some good listening and hears some crafty robbers planing to steel a prize cow. I won't spoil the ending by telling you what happens (but involves some noisy farm animals). This led to a conversation around listening with'The Fairy'. What could be a better opportunity for a listening game. 

We modified the 'hot/cold' game I used to play as a child. We took it in turns to hide 3 farm animal toys. The 'seeker' then choose one animal at a time - by selecting a card (we were lucky to have matching toy animals and cards). The 'seeker' then searched for the hidden animal. The 'hider' aided the search by making that animals sound (i.e. moo for cow)- getting louder as the 'seeker' gets nearer the hidden animal.

Look who we found.

Many reception teachers report that children entering school do not have good listening skills. This game offers a great opportunity to practice whilst having fun! It also gave us an added bonus to practice using positional language (e.g. next to the wheel, under the stool, on the bricks etc).