5 fun listening games early years children love

Are you looking for fun listening games early years children love?

These super simple activities develop key listening skills, perfect for 2,3 and 4-year-olds. Follow in the footsteps of Ladybirds Nursery Class and their families to get started straight away!

Listening Games in Ladybird Class

The Ladybirds were a fun-loving, energetic bunch of 2 and 3-year-olds who loved to engage with everything the Nursery had to offer. But there was a problem. Their teacher was desperate for new listening games to develop essential listening skills, as this was an area where some of the children were struggling.

This is the story of how we worked together to develop refined listening skills in nursery, ready for reading.

Why listening games for preschoolers are so important

Listening games for preschoolers help develop the essential listening and attention skills 2 and 3-year-olds need for many areas of development.

Refined listening skills are particularly critical in preparing 2- and 3-year-olds for phonics, as phonics is a sound-based system.

Listening games that prepare 2 and 3-year-olds for phonics help them identify differences and similarities in sounds and words.

Preschoolers who’ve played many early years listening games have trained their ears well; they have good auditory discrimination.

Auditory Discrimination Explained!

This super speedy explainer is just the start!

Continue this online prephonics training here…..

Phase 1 phonics listening games

Some of the best ways to develop auditory discrimination are phase 1 phonics listening games.

In these games, preschoolers match the sounds they hear with the objects or pictures, that correspond to the sounds.

These can be real, everyday objects, or musical sounds .

We need more listening games eyfs children enjoy

The Ladybirds’ teacher had been playing auditory discrimination games from Letters and Sounds Phase 1 for a long time.

“We just need some new ideas that are fun, engaging, and capture the attention of the children.

One of our groups particularly needs practise with discriminating sounds. They’re generally okay at spotting the difference between everyday sounds, but when sounds become more similar, they find listening to be much more challenging.

We know that being able to hear the differences between letters and sounds is what they’ll need to do when they start full-time school, and we want them to be well prepared.”

Successful Sound Stories

Before we began reviewing the listening games the 2-3 year olds could play, we reviewed the books available for the children.

I noticed that there were no noisy books in the book corner.

We discussed how books with buttons matched to sounds can be highly beneficial for developing key vocabulary and an essential understanding of symbols matched to sounds.

Here are some recommended books that the little Ladybirds loved engaging with…

Noisy Farm
Listen to the farm
Noisy Vehicles
Listen to things that go
Noisy Jungle
Noisy Dinosaurs
Listen to the pets
Noisy Orchestra
Noisy Babies
Chug chug tractor
Noisy Pirates

Download your own copy of this free booklist here

It includes over 100 brilliant books, perfect for developing all the prephonic skills 2,3- 4-year-olds need to be ready for reading.

A fun phase 1 listening game to start with!

All of the little Ladybirds were very familiar with phones; they were a big part of everyday life at home.

We decided to start with using this super simple sounds game using phone ringtones. Taken from the Super Sounds Prephonics Programme, it’s a fun and engaging way to explore the differences in sounds matched to this familiar item.

It was an instant hit!

Another great listening game phase 1

The next great listening game phase 1 alternative the Ladybird’s tried from Super Sounds was the ‘Listen To The Shopping’ game.

Just like the noisy phones game, this is super speedy to prepare and captures the children’s interest immediately. The Ladybirds loved talking about the sounds they could hear and how these matched their shopping at home.

The Ladybird’s teacher added the ‘noisy shopping’ to the home corner following the activity, so the children could continue to develop auditory discrimination as they played.

Try the Listen to the shopping game today and sing the shopping song together!

You can download the song words for free here.

This instant download includes lots of prephonic songs from Super Sounds to sing along to for free now!

Tried and tested with thousands of children just like yours, you’re guaranteed hours of fun and learning!

More great listening games early years children love....

One of the most important developmental steps for 2- and 3-year-olds to develop auditory discrimination is the ability to hear sounds matched to objects they can’t see.

This Noisy Eggs game from Super Sounds took some practise but was super successful for developing this skill.

The little Ladybirds particularly loved it when the eggs were hidden outside and they had to find two eggs that sounded the same.

Keep on listening...

For a seasonal swap at Christmas, the teacher in Ladybirds developed this easy alternative to the same game.

This was a firm favourite with adults and children alike!

Listening games early years children can play at home

The Ladybirds needed lots of listening practise, which meant continuing beyond their time in Nursery.

The Ladybird’s teacher recommended some easy-peasy ideas for families to try, including simply being intentional about pointing out sounds while they were out and about.

Preschool listening games to play at home

These interactive preschool listening games were perfect for the children to join in with at home too.

The Ladybird’s teacher introduced these every Friday.

They were very popular with busy parents who wanted to continue playing and practising over the weekend.

The impact on the little ladybirds!

A lot of hard work had gone into improving listening and auditory discrimination in Ladybirds Class.

The amazing impact of this work was worth celebrating!

In comparison with my first visit to Ladybirds, I spotted:

2-year-olds independently engaging with noisy books, talking about the books and play ‘reading’ as they remembered the stories and the characters that made the sounds.
2 and 3-year-olds could not only name the objects that made some sounds. They were learning to describe some of the sounds they heard like ‘rattle’, shake’ and ‘scrunch’.
The Ladybirds had made fantastic progress in a short space of time, with just a few small tweaks and some fun games to play. Their teacher and the parents were delighted!

Nursery Phonics Planning

If these games sound like just what your 2 and 3-year-olds need too, then it’s time to take a look inside Super Sounds.

It’s the only fun, engaging, award-winning prephonics programme of its kind, specifically designed for 2,3 and 4 year olds.

Written by a prephonics expert and perfect for use before every phonics programme, Super Sounds is easy to follow, teaching a progression of prephonics skills step by step, with guaranteed results.

Whether you want fresh ideas as an alternative to Phase 1 Phonics, or you’re new to phonics in nursery and don’t know where to start, Super Sounds is just for you!