Our Listening Rules

For today's Social Studies lesson, we talked about how to be a learner.  We started out by exercising our most important learning muscle...our brain!  We played a game called, "Follow, Follow".  It is very similar to "Simon Says", as we had to practice following directions to touch one or even two body parts!  After we exercised our brain, we met our new friend, Puppy.  Puppy was REALLY excited to come to kindergarten but he was having a hard time listening.  We had to show him how to be a listener at school by going over our 4 listening rules. 

Rules tell us how to listen and act in a group so that everyone can learn.  Our first listening rule is "Eyes Watching".  Our eyes should be looking at the person who is speaking.  As we say the listening rule, we point to our eyes.  Getting our voices and bodies involved helps us to reinforce the learning in 3 different ways: hearing it, saying it, and doing it!  

Our second listening rule is "Ears Listening."  When it is listening time, the teachers will be giving us important directions.  We need to listen to what they are saying so we know what to do when it is time to work. 

The third listing rule is "Voices Quiet".  The listening rules help everyone to be a better learner.  When we have our own voices quiet, then all friends can hear what the teachers are saying.  Our whole school uses a special voice volume chart.  Level 0 means that our voices our turned off, so our action for this rule reminds us that voices should be at level 0 during listening times.  

Finally, to be a good listener, we have to stay in our listening space and keep our "Body Still." This helps all of us be less distracted and better able to pay attention to our teachers.  

After learning about our listening rules, and practicing saying them and doing the actions, our friend Puppy was able to be a MUCH better listener!  We will continue to work on reinforcing these listening rules with Puppy (and ourselves) throughout the year.  Listening and following directions can be a challenge for most Kindergartners, so it is a great skill to work on and reinforce at home!