Have you ever thought about the difference between “listening” and “hearing?” They may sound similar, but they are very different! You may be able to hear sounds with your ears, but that does not mean that you are really listening. To be a listener, you must pay attention and think about what the other person is saying. I don’t know about you, but a lot of my students really struggle with this!
These activities are designed to help kids learn to actually listen, rather than just hearing. They contain single and multi-step coloring directions that students need to follow in order to complete their picture correctly.
After students are finished, have them compare their pages. Did anyone follow all of the directions? Probably not! Sometimes we think we are listening, but we may not be listening as well as we think. You might also talk about how two students may listen to one direction and interpret it differently. For example, “color the three flowers on the ground pink, purple, or orange. You decide which colors go on each flower.” Some students might use all three colors on one flower, while other students might use a single color on each flower.
It’s also helpful to discuss strategies for listening to students after completing the activity (i.e. staying quiet, repeating the direction quietly to themselves until the finish it, doing the step right away before they forget what they are supposed to do, not letting their mind wander to other things, etc.)
This pack contains 10 different coloring activities, as well as “scorecards” for students to see how well they listened and followed the directions! Great for ages 4-7.
