Lunch Bunch Lesson On The Importance of Listening

When beginning any group it is 
important to establish ground rules.  I quickly go over the basic rules and also have them posted on my wall.  (You can download this poster for free on my TpT Store.)

This year I decided to add a lesson on the importance of following some of these rules.  Today, I focused in on listening, and having one person speak at a time.  

The kids ate lunch and while they ate, we passed around some basic Get-To-Know-You Icebreaker Questions.  When they were done eating, we moved into the hallway to allow for some extra room.  We played the Animal Sounds game.  I asked them what sounds a cat, a dog, a cow, a chicken, and a pig each made.  after we mooed, clucked, meowed, barked, and oinked, I randomly assigned each student one of these animals.  I had them close their eyes, and make their animal sound.  They were then asked to find and link arms with others who were the same animal as them.  It was noisy, and with about 30 girls making animal sounds, it was pretty hard to distinguish who was making what sound.  After a few minutes, I had them stop, open their eyes, and look around.  It was interesting to see who was linked, who was not, how many different groups of chickens I had, and where were the pigs?!  

I then had them sit on the floor and we talked about the experience.  Here is what I asked:

• What was important for you to do during this activity?
• What made this activity difficult?
• Once you found your group, how did you feel?
• If you couldn’t find your group right away, how did you feel?
• What would make this activity easier?
• What do you think this activity taught us about what is important for each of us to remember when we are in Lunch Bunch?

The point of this activity was to show how hard it was to concentrate when everyone was talking at the same time and if we all had different agendas.  So, what is important for each of us to remember when we are in Lunch Bunch?  Have only one person share at a time, so we can all hear and pay attention to what is being said.

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