More Activity Ideas
- Play “Guess the Animal Sound.” Make animal sounds with your voices and try to guess each other’s animal sound (bark, meow, hoot, roar, cluck, hiss, etc.) For more fun, pretend to move like the animal as you make the sounds.
- If possible, go to a Science Museum, farm, or zoo to hear real animal sounds. [Watch the video Between the Lions “Bear Snores On” and act out the sound words with your child. Type in the Search window: Watch Together: Bear Snores On.]
- Challenge your child to count sounds. Clap (or stomp, snap, or jump) a certain number of times and ask, How many times did I clap? Switch roles.
- Use your body to make sound patterns. Together, create patterns with your body sounds (e.g., stomp, stomp, clap, stomp, stomp, clap; sneeze, sing, sing, sneeze, sing, sing, etc.) and teach your sound patterns to one another.
- Bath time is a great time to listen to the sounds of water. Pour, splash, and drip as you discover all the different sounds that water can make.
- Have your child listen to the sounds all around her. Ask her to close her eyes and sit quietly for one minute. Talk about the sounds she hears. Move to a different location and listen together again. Compare the sounds from the two locations. [Watch the video Peep and the Big Wide World “Listening for Sounds” and follow Peep and his friend find his way home by listening to sounds. Type in the Search window: Watch Together: Listening for Sounds.]
- Talk to your child about sounds as you go through your daily routines. You can ask your child what she is hearing as you walk to the day-care center. You can talk about sounds inside and outside (loud doorbell, soft wind, screechy brakes, whisper talk, etc.) At the end of the day, ask your child to describe the sounds she heard throughout the day.
- Point out sound you hear indoors and outdoors: SHHH, do you hear that sound? (trees rustling, washing machine banging, city sounds, animal sounds, people talking)
- Together act out places and times when it is appropriate to use a loud voice (playground, ball game, outside) as well as those when you need to use a quiet voice (library, restaurant, when someone is sleeping).
- Take time to listen to your child when she shares stories and tells you about her day. Your questions will encourage her to share even more. By being a good listener you show her how to become a good listener, too.
- Read books with sound words such as, City Lullaby by Marilyn Singer, The Listening Walk by Paul Showers, Max Found Two Sticks by Jerry Pinkney. Use expression and gestures to act out the sound words with your child.