Listen and follow SEL Activity

Listen and follow - Social Emotional Learning Activity

Description: Listening to instructions and following them correctly.

Activity output: Develop skills to focus, understand, and execute .

 

Key SEL skill:   Self-Awareness- recognizing strengthens, self confidence & efficacy 

                            Self-Management - self discipline, self motivation, goal setting, organizational skills 

                            Responsible Decision Making 

                            Mindfulness 

Time required :  20 minutes (flexible)

Space: An adequate space for children to form a big circle

Resources: A4 sheets (one for each child), pencils (one for each child), a list of instructions, a sheet with all the instructions elaborated and fixed on a flipchart board (or could paste on a wall after reading the instructions to children). 

Preparation: Prepare a drawing on a flipchart paper, with several objects and drawings, so that you could describe them to the children.

Arrangement: Have children sit in a circle around the teacher, in the classroom

Adaptation: You can make this activity difficult by increasing or decreasing the speed of reading out the instructions. You may combine this activity with the Art Period.

How to do Listen and follow

1. The teacher should keep the flipchart drawing covered or flipchart turned back to the class.
2. Give each child a paper and a pencil.
3. Tell children that they will hear some instructions. They must listen carefully and follow them accurately on the piece of paper they have received. Tell them that the speed of the instructions will keep increasing and that it might get more complex. Hence, that they must focus all their attention to listen and follow the instructions.
4. Read-out instructions by looking at the drawing prepared by the teacher. The teacher should not make the flipchart drawing visible to the children.
5. Caution> be careful to read-out the drawing properly so that what you intend to be drawn is properly conveyed through your instructions.
6. After reading the instructions, let the children see the drawing done by the teacher. Let them comparer the differences between their drawing and the drawing on the flip chart board.

In the end, ask the children: “In this activity, how could you have made our drawings more accurately?”  Share the message: “if you could focus your listening more, you could have taken-in the proper information. You can develop the skills of executing correct commands by doing this activity”. Listening helps you to understand what was said better. It improves your ability to make connections between ideas and information. It changes your perspective and challenges your assumptions. It engages you in empathizing and showing respect or appreciation to others, which may lead to enhancing your relationships. Listening skills also assists you in building and improving your self-esteem. If the people aren’t good listeners, it becomes more problematic to get things done effectively and trust can be broken, which could lead to very serious communication issues.