In this blog, I want to give you 3 fun and playful activities for children ages 5 to 7 around recognizing sounds, an important step in the development of language skills. And what could be more fun than offering these activities using a hand puppet? The hand puppet adds dimension to the activities, increases involvement, and makes it easier for children to participate. This makes it even more fun to practice with language.

In this blog, you will find three different activities you can do with children ages 5 to 7. The activities are playful and interactive and can be easily adapted to the child’s level. I also provide tips and directions for using the hand puppet during these activities. Get inspired and have fun recognizing sounds!

Let your puppet introduce the activity and let it perform it as much as possible. Here I give you the text as my puppet would use it.

  1. Listen and discover: Hi, here I am again! I came up with a game, a game of sounds. There are many different ones, aren’t there? Yes, and now I thought, let’s play with that a little bit, guess what we hear. Just close your eyes and then listen very carefully. What do you all hear? Do you hear birds singing? Or a car driving by? Maybe you hear a cow? What do you hear? If you heard something, raise your finger, I’ll know you heard something. Also, do you know what it’s called? If you don’t know, listen again, so you can mimic the sound. Then maybe someone else will know. When I tell you to open your eyes again, you will see who else heard a sound.
  2. Word bingo: Hi there I am again! I came up with another game, a game of words. Yes, and that’s also a bingo. Look, here I have bingo cards with all the letters. (Make these bingo cards yourself if you don’t have them) We are going to play a game where we have to find words that start with the same sound, with the same letter. For example, which words begin with the “p”? Do you know one? Then put a cross on the ‘p’ on your bingo card. And then after that we think of words that start with the letter “s,” if you know one of them, then you put a cross through the “s” on your bingo card. And then we go to yet another letter. Get it? I wonder who will be the first to fill up their bingo card!
  3. Create your own sound book: You know what I got? I have a book of sounds. Yes, that’s a book with all the pictures of things that make sound. Look: this is the wind, the sea, a train, a dog, a drill, the toilet, they all make sounds. Some sounds are loud and some are soft. I’m curious if you know these sounds. If I show them to you, do you know what sound it makes? What the sound is called? Shall we imitate the sounds and list what it is called? If you were to make your own book of sounds, what sounds would be included in your book?

Have your puppet conclude the activity and indicate when he or she will come again.

Thank you for reading and your time, and until another blog.