The Listening Center

Okay, back to something easy... well, easier.  I'm hoping that if you're in an early childhood classroom you already have a listening center of some sort in your room.  Listening centers are wonderful!  Mine looks a little something like this...


What a lovely Lakeshore Listening Table!

I think Lakeshore fully furnished my classroom when my school made the switch over to full-day kindergarten six years ago.  This is a fantastic table that eight children can sit around semi-comfortably.  I have to say that the children in the picture look way more comfortable than the children in my class have ever looked!  My kids like to squish in around the table and share books. 

Hey, at least they seem to enjoy it! 

If you don't have a listening center, you should definitely consider investing in one for your students (or finding someone else to invest in one for you).  You don't have to have a fancy schmancy table, either.  You could have a couple pairs of headphones attached to a cassette player in a quiet place.  Children love listening to stories and it's great for them to be able to follow along with the words, hear the speaker's fluency, tone, and even sound effects (Neuman, 2011).  A fifth grade teacher in Michigan decided that it would be beneficial for her students who were struggling to read to start utilizing audio books.  By April of that year, half of her struggling students were up to par with the grade level expectations (Rubenstein, 2006).  Listening skills can really make a difference when it comes to reading. 

In the beginning of the year, we read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and it's nice for the children to be able to go to our listening center and listen to a familiar book.  I didn't have this particular book on tape, so instead of buying it, I recorded myself reading the book on a blank tape!  I think I sound ridiculous, but the kids love it.  :-) 


I also have a Chester raccoon puppet that the children can snuggle and hug while they are listening to the story.  This becomes a comfort to them, especially in the first few weeks of school.  Later on, as we read other Chester stories, they usually like to act them out in Dramatic Play. 

I love puppets.  

Anyway, back to the listening center...

I didn't realize how behind the times I was until I saw this:

Listening Center with iPod!

I mean, I only have a cassette player.  Then of course there are CD players, but I feel like even those are becoming obsolete!  It's amazing what's out there.  Using an iPod for a listening center is really ingenius.  You can download all kinds of books from the public library, as well as iTunes, which can give you great options when deciding how to set up your listening center.  They are also teeny and can hold TONS of songs.  You could pop the iPod into your listening station for the children to listen to an audio book and then plug it into your computer to do a transition song.  Very important in early childhood. 

Here's a site that has some great tips and suggestions about setting up a listening center, what materials to use, how to assess children's work, and even rules and expectations. 

If you don't have any way of getting a listening center into your classroom, but you do have access to computers... you'll need to know more about podcasts.  I guess you know what my next blog will be about!  I hope you're excited!!!  :-D