Need a refresher on why it’s important to listen? Looking for some activities to encourage listening with your kids? (So did I…) Luckily, Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen is a great read on the importance of listening, and the consequences that follow when you don’t!
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen follows Howard, a little bunny rabbit who just can’t seem to listen! He doesn’t listen at story time, and instead bounces his ears straight into a fan. He doesn’t listen to his friends at the cafeteria and slips on a banana peel. He doesn’t listen while playing and takes a baseball to the eye. Howard gets tired of getting in trouble for not listening, so he resolves to do his best to listen, and gets rewarded for his efforts with a gold star and extra play time at home.
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen is a quick read with only a few sentences per page, paired with entertaining pictures of the mishaps Howard gets into because he doesn’t listen. I liked that it showed lighthearted consequences to not listening, because so often when I tell my kids not to do something, I’m met with, “Why?” This book illustrates “why” perfectly.
I didn’t really create a lesson plan around this book, because my kids already understand what listening means, and there wasn’t really anything to explain. Instead I just gathered up activities that reinforced listening skills. My 4 year old had a great time with them, but my 2 year old didn’t quite understand what she was supposed to be doing. For example, my 4 year old caught on very quickly to, “Do As I Say, Not As I Do,” but my 2 year old kept doing what I was doing until she saw what her brother was doing and started copying that. We played it at the dinner table, too, and instead of listening to my instructions, she just watched what her dad and brother were doing and did that. She also struggled with “Mother, May I?” and after she asked if she could take two steps, just took two steps. So I think we’re going to have to work on that. (Haha!)
Below are the listening activities we did to go along with the book. Enjoy!
Lesson
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen
Activities
Activity 1: Mother May I
Materials
- Open space
Instructions
- Have your kids stand on one side of the room while you stand on the other with your back to the kids.
- Taking turns, one kid starts and asks, “Mother May I take x steps?” (where they fill in the ‘x’ number.)
- You say, “Yes, you may,” or, “No, you may not, but you may do x instead,” (where ‘x’ is your own suggestion).
- The first kid to get to you wins.
Wikipedia rules for Mother May I?
Activity 2: Red Light, Green Light
Materials
- Open space
Instructions
- Have your kids stand on one side of the room while you stand on the other side.
- Call out, “Green light!” and turn around so your back is to the kids.
- The kids race to you as fast as they can until you yell out, “Red light!” and turn around so you’re facing the kids again.
- Anyone who moves while you’re facing the kids is “out” and either has to return to the starting line or sit out the rest of the game.
- Call out, “Green light!” and turn around again so your back is to the kids.
- The kids race to you as fast as they can until you again yell out, “Red light!” and turn around so you’re facing the kids.
- Anyone who moves while you’re facing the kids is “out” and either has to return to the starting line or sit out the rest of the game.
- Repeat until one of the kids reaches you.
Wikipedia rules for Red Light, Green Light.
Activity 3: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Materials
- Open space
Instructions
- Have the kids face you with enough space around them to move.
- Say, “Do as I say, not as I do! Jump up and down!” but instead of jumping up and down, you sit down.
- Continue with conflicting words and actions until the kids get bored.
- You can also have everyone stand in a circle and take turns being the caller.
Extension
- You can play this anywhere! Even at the dinner table. It can be good for a laugh.
Activity 4: What do you hear?
Materials
- None
Instructions
- Have the kids sit silently for a minute. You can either use a timer or just go until the kids can’t take it anymore.
- Ask the kids what they heard.
- Have the kids sit silently again.
- Ask the kids if they heard anything else/different.
Videos/Books
Another book on the importance of listening, featuring another rabbit! Buddy doesn’t listen to anyone, and often misunderstands what he does hear with humorous results. When Buddy doesn’t listen to his parent’s directions and ends up at the home of the Scruffy Varmint, his difficulty listening angers the Scruffy Varmint into trying to make him into soup! Lesson learned: Buddy listens after that.
KC Aubin 