The Montessori Silence Game and Beyond: Auditory Games

The Silence Game Part 3

Developing good listening skills at a young age is critical and there are so many things that we can do to help refine their listening skills in the Montessori preschool environment.  Aside from the Silence Game (see Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series), there are a multitude of activities that you can implement to further refine a child’s listening skills and below are just a few ideas:

The Montessori Silence Game and Beyond: Auditory Games

1.  Name that sound. Play an audio recording of different sounds and encourage the children to identify what they are (ducks quacking, bees buzzing, piano playing, phone ringing, baby crying, etc.)
2. Sound Bingo. Create Bingo cards and in each square on the Bingo card, have a picture that coincides with the sounds on the audio recording (i.e., duck, bee, piano, phone, baby, etc).  Each time the child hears a sound that matches the picture on their card, they cover the square with a bingo chip.
3. Musical Mats. Scatter some small rugs/mats on the floor and have each child stand on a mat. Then, play recorded music and have the children walk from mat to mat.  When the music stops, each child needs to find a mat to step on.   
4. What do you hear? Prepare a tray of items that have distinctive sounds,  such as a music box, a rattle, an alarm clock, a windup toy, bells, etc. and then remove the tray from the children's sight. Then, standing behind the children choose one item at a time to make a sound while the children take turns guessing the source of the sound.
5.  Freeze Dancing. Invite the children to dance when the music is on and when you turn the music off, they should FREEZE!   Experiment with different tempos…children dance quickly to music with a fast beat and slowly to music with a slow beat.  
6. Take a Sound Walk. Go on a walk around the schoolyard or inside the school and have the children take turns identifying everything they hear. Ask them to determine the direction a sound is coming from.
7.  Use the Montessori Sound Shakers or create your own. Pair the cylinders together based on the sound that they make
8.  Play “Simon Says”
9.  Play musical ‘follow the leader’. Use recycled materials to make identical musical instruments……one for you, and one for each child. Then, make one simple noise with your instrument and ask the children to try to imitate it with their instrument. Then, make two noises, three noises, four noises, etc., and have the children attempt to repeat the patterns you create. Variation: Sing or hum a portion of a song or tune, and ask the children to take turns repeating it.
10. Who Am I? Choose one child to put on a blindfold and sit on a chair in the middle of  the circle.  Then, choose a child from circle to quietly walk up to the blindfolded child and say, “Hello!  Who am I?”    The child in the chair has to guess whose voice they just heard.
11. Clapping Game. Clap a pattern and encourage the children to repeat the pattern that they just heard.

As much as possible, NAMC’s web blog reflects the Montessori curriculum as provided in its teacher training programs. We realize and respect that Montessori schools are unique and may vary their schedules and offerings in accordance with the needs of their individual communities. We hope that our readers will find our articles useful and inspiring as a contribution to the global Montessori community.
© North American Montessori Center - originally posted in its entirety at Montessori Teacher Training on Wednesday, December 22, 2010.