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Whole Body Listening is a great topic to discuss with younger students who are learning how to behave in school.  I have found it a great way to talk to Kindergarten and First graders about classroom expectations regarding listening and body control.

To start the lesson, I read the story Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow.  In this book, Howard, a precocious young rabbit gets in a lot of trouble for not listening to the people around him.  When Howard begins listening to friends and family, he finds that he is in trouble less and has better relationships with them.

After reading the book, we discussed all of the parts of a good listener.  For Whole Body Listening, it takes every part of your body to be a truly effective listener.  This includes, Listening Ears, Thinking Brain, Watching Eyes, Quiet Mouth, Caring Heart, Body Forward, Hands and Feet to Self.

To close, each student created their own listener complete with all of these parts, plus any other decoration they wanted to add.