Emotional intelligence activity
Active Listening Challenge
Practice being a super listener! Learn to look at the speaker, keep your body still, and show you heard them by repeating back what they said.
Materials and setup
No special materials are listed; check each step before starting.
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Practice being a super listener! Learn to look at the speaker, keep your body still, and show you heard them by repeating back what they said.
Steps
- Sit facing each other. Show good listening: eyes on the speaker, body still, mouth quiet.
- Play the Parrot Game: parent says a short sentence, child repeats it back exactly.
- Tell a short story (3-4 sentences). Ask your child to retell what happened.
- Practice listening with a partner: one person talks about their favorite thing for 30 seconds, the other listens, then repeats back what they heard.
- Celebrate great listening: I heard you say ___! That means you were really listening!
- After you repeat back, draw one thing the speaker told you about.
Learning objectives
- Demonstrate listening body language: eye contact, still body, quiet mouth
- Repeat back simple messages to show comprehension
- Practice waiting to speak until the other person finishes
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Take the Active Listening Challenge! Practice listening without interrupting, asking follow-up questions, and reflecting back what someone said in your own words.
Steps
- Learn the 3 rules of active listening: no interrupting, make eye contact, show you care with nods and expressions.
- Partner up: one person tells a 1-minute story about their day. The listener stays silent and attentive.
- After the story, the listener reflects back: You said that ___ and then ___. Is that right?
- The listener asks 2 follow-up questions to learn more about the story.
- Switch roles and repeat. Discuss: How did it feel to be truly listened to?
Learning objectives
- Listen to a full story without interrupting
- Reflect back the main points of what someone shared
- Ask relevant follow-up questions to deepen understanding
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Master active listening skills: paraphrasing, clarifying, empathizing, and summarizing. Track your listening habits for a week and work on improving.
Steps
- Learn 4 active listening skills: paraphrase (restate in your words), clarify (ask when confused), empathize (name the feeling you hear), summarize (recap key points).
- Practice each skill in a structured conversation with a family member about something important to them.
- Keep a Listening Log for one week: note 3 conversations each day and which skills you used.
- Identify your listening strengths and one area to improve.
- Have a family listening circle: each person shares something for 2 minutes while others practice active listening, then reflect back what they heard.
- Write about how better listening changed your conversations this week.
Learning objectives
- Apply four distinct active listening techniques in conversation
- Track and reflect on personal listening habits over time
- Recognize how active listening improves communication and relationships
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Develop advanced communication skills: active listening in difficult conversations, reading nonverbal cues, navigating misunderstandings, and teaching listening skills to others.
Steps
- Study nonverbal communication: body language, facial expressions, tone of voice. Practice reading these cues in a conversation.
- Role-play challenging listening scenarios: someone is upset, someone disagrees with you, someone is sharing bad news. Practice responding with empathy.
- Learn about communication barriers: distractions, assumptions, emotional reactions. Discuss strategies to overcome each one.
- Conduct a listening experiment: have the same conversation twice — once with poor listening, once with active listening. Compare the outcomes.
- Create a Communication Skills Workshop: design a 10-minute lesson teaching active listening to younger kids or family members.
- Present your workshop and facilitate a practice activity for participants.
Learning objectives
- Read and interpret nonverbal communication cues accurately
- Apply active listening in emotionally challenging conversations
- Design and deliver a communication skills workshop for others
Safety and evidence note
Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.
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