The Listening Walk
PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS ISBN: 0064433226
This is one of our favourite picture books. It has a wonderfully slow pace and encourages children to tune into all the sounds we can hear in our immediate environment. When reading aloud you can recreate the sounds in the story with realism, thanks to the cleverness of the author- the noise of the bus is brilliantly captured.
We decided to include a listening element to our nature walk this week and packed some special items to take along in a little bag.
- Twig colouring pencils
- Mini journal
- Binoculars
- Green and yellow tags - the two colours to find and tag
- A business card box for collecting
- And lastly the magic listening egg for our special listening walk!
I got the idea for the listening egg from a recent visit my class had to Greenmount. When your child is holding the egg, they have to close their eyes, be still and quiet and try to identify what they can hear in their immediate environment. It really helps children to focus! You can easily swap the egg out for a stone or listening toy.
You can find similar ideas for field study bags and nature scavenger hunts at one of our most visited sites:
We had a super time and as a bonus we collected lots of pebbles that we are going to use as story stones.
What a fun way to explore senses. I will have to get my hands on that book!
Posted by: Jill @ a mom with a lesson plan | July 2011 at 13:33
just found your blog recently. This is a great idea we're going to give it a go.
Posted by: Stacey B | July 2009 at 23:44
Wonderful! I used that book last year for a read-aloud and it was one of the noisiest read-alouds I've ever had - the kids just enjoy it so.
Posted by: Giftofgreen | July 2009 at 20:45