Teaching kids to face the speaker and body language tips.

📚 Lesson: Active Listening & Body Language for Kids

This lesson plan helps children understand the importance of facing the speaker, maintaining eye contact, and interpreting non-verbal cues. It combines interactive activities with practical tips to improve their communication skills.

🎯 Objectives

• 👂 Understand the importance of facing the speaker when listening.
• 👁️‍🗨️ Recognize and interpret basic body language cues (facial expressions, posture).
• 🗣️ Improve active listening skills by paying attention to both verbal and non-verbal communication.
• 🤝 Practice respectful and effective communication.

🖍️ Materials

• 🖼️ Pictures or flashcards depicting different emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised).
• 🎭 Charades cards with emotions or actions.
• 📝 Worksheet with questions about body language scenarios.
• 🧸 A stuffed animal or puppet.

☀️ Warm-up (5 mins)

• 👋 Greeting Game: Have students greet each other while making strong eye contact and using a confident posture.

🧠 Main Instruction

1. 🗣️ Facing the Speaker

   • 📍 Explain that facing the speaker shows respect and helps us hear better.
   • 🙋 Demonstrate turning your body and making eye contact when someone is speaking.
   • 🎲 Activity: "Statue Game." One student is the speaker, and the others are statues. When the speaker talks, the statues must turn and face them.

2. 🎭 Understanding Body Language

   • 😊 Discuss how our faces and bodies can show how we are feeling.
   • 🖼️ Show pictures of different emotions and ask students to identify them based on facial expressions.
   • 🤸 Explain basic body language cues:
   • 👍 Smiling: Happy or friendly
   • 😠 Frowning: Sad or angry
   • arms crossed: defensive
   • 🎲 Activity: Charades. Students act out emotions or actions, and others guess.

3. 👂 Active Listening

   • 🧸 Use a stuffed animal or puppet to demonstrate active listening. The puppet should face the speaker, make eye contact, and nod.
   • 💬 Explain the importance of listening carefully and not interrupting.
   • ❓ Encourage students to ask questions to show they are listening.
   • 🎲 Activity: "Listen and Draw." Give students instructions to draw a picture, but they can only listen and cannot ask questions.

✅ Assessment

• 📝 Distribute the worksheet with body language scenarios.
• ❓ Have students answer questions like:
• 🤔 What does it mean when someone is smiling?
• 😟 What does it mean when someone is frowning?
• 🙅 What should you do when someone is talking to you?
• 🗣️ Discuss the answers as a class.