Picnic Activities

Muffled Sounds

This game aims to highlight the impact of different levels of hearing loss.

You will need head phones/ear plugs/cotton balls placed over the child’s ear. (REMEMBER NO objects or materials in ears)

• Ask a child 1 to stand approximately 1 metre away and say short sentences in a normal classroom voice
• Ask the other children in the class to talk to each other in a normal classroom voice while child 1 is trying to listen to the sentences.
• Ask child 2 if they could hear child 1 when the class returns to silence
• Swap children

Positioning

This game highlights the benefit/need of lip reading. (Especially relevant due to people wearing masks)

• Teacher stands in different parts of the room such as in front of a window or a poorly lit area of the room,
• Move to a well-lit part of the room.
• Ask the children which positions make it easier to understand what is being said/taught.
• Ask the children which positions can they see your facial expressions better.

Whispers

This game highlights the need for clear communication.

• Separate the class into 2 groups in straight lines.
• The teacher will say a long sentence to the first child in each group.
• Each child will repeat the sentence to the next child until it reaches the end of the line.
• The last child will repeat what they think was the original sentence.
• The teacher reads and shows the class the original message.
• Discuss the difference between a message from the initial message of the teacher

How many people have a hearing loss

This game highlights the need to protect your hearing and the levels of hearing loss in Australia

• Ask all the children to stand up (This game is based on 20 students)
• Ask 2 to sit down (demonstrates that 1 in 10 Australian Primary Aged Children have a hearing Loss). Ask 4 to sit down (demonstrates that 2 in 10 Australian aged 15 and over have a hearing Loss)
• Ask all children to sit down except 2 (demonstrates that 9 in 10 Australians over 50 have a hearing loss)

Marco Polo

 This game highlights how important hearing is.

• Blind fold one child and ask the other children to stand still and say Marco Polo.
• When the blindfolded child finds a person who is calling out Marco Polo the captured child needs to move to a safe place away from the blind folded child and sit down.
•  The blind folded child continues to find children when they say Marco Polo until they have found the last child.