Download Lesson Plans - Loud Shirt Day

Lesson Plan 1
Trivia Questions – True or False!? Have the class raise their hands to answer the True or False
questions below.
1). There are currently 100 children in NZ that are deaf and have cochlear implants. (False)
There are almost 500 children in NZ who have cochlear implants or hearing aids to help them
listen and speak.
2). Elephants have exceptional hearing due to their large ears (True) But their ears also help
them to regulate their body temperature by acting as fans.
3). To be profoundly deaf means that you could not hear a jet engine if you were standing next
to one. (True)
4). Hearing-aids can enable completely deaf people to hear. (False) Cochlear implants can
enable deaf people to hear, hearing aids are usually used by partially deaf people, which
amplify the minimal sound that they can hear.
5). Many children with cochlear implants in NZ who are born deaf are now reaching ageappropriate language and attending mainstream school (True)
6). Your ears both pick up and process sound. (False) While your ears pick up the sound, it is
your brain that does the hard work of making sense of it all.
7). When we go to sleep our ears continue to hear sound. (True)
8). Over 30 million people under the age of 15 are affected by hearing loss. (True) Generally,
only about one third of all people with hearing loss are over the age of 65 - although society
are more commonly known to think hearing loss mainly occurs in elderly people.
9). Dolphins are able to see by hearing. (True) Dolphins squeak and listen for the sound to
bounce back giving it an impressively detailed audible description of what's up ahead. This is
called echolocation.
10). Dogs can hear at the same levels as humans. (False) Dogs are able to hear much higher
frequencies then humans, some frequencies are so high the human ear cannot even hear
them.
Lesson Plan 2 – Brainstorm, what can you hear?
It is surprising all the noises that you can hear in the classroom even when everyone is quiet. Well,
what are they? Get each student to write down everything they can hear when everyone is trying
to be quiet. Can you hear the clock? Wind? Talking? Breathing? Cars? Airplanes? Footsteps? See
what interesting noises everyone can hear. Are you aware of those sounds?
Discussion topic:
Talk about what it would be like to be a deaf person and get each
student to mention what might be a safety hazard for people who are
deaf/hearing impaired. For example; not being able to hear their name
being called, hearing the cross walk when crossing the road, hearing the
fire alarm etc.
Lesson Plan 3 – Whose there? Balance and direction exercise
Instruct the children to sit in a large circle on the floor. Place a chair in the center of the circle.
Choose a student to sit in the chair. That person is “it". Tie a blindfold (the scarf) to cover the
student’s eyes. Make sure you ask the child’s permission! Some students
will not feel comfortable using the blindfold. Then point to a student in
the circle. That student, “the speaker", then says hello to the child in the
chair. The speaker can use a disguised voice or a normal voice. The
student in the chair has to guess who is speaking. Allow only 2 or 3
guesses. Give everyone a chance to be “it".
Discussion topic:
Talk to the students about how our ears not only help us hear, but they aid in balance and
direction as well. Was it more difficult for the students to determine where the sounds were
coming from when they were only listening out of one ear? What implications could this have for
a deaf person? Could a deaf person safely cross the road? Could a partially deaf person determine
where sound was coming form in a large, noisy crowd?
Lesson Plan 4 – Whisper Train
Get the class to sit in a single file line facing forward. Start with the
student at one end of the line and whisper a sentence to them. Usually a
sentence with alliterations can be fun such as ‘She sells sea shells by the
sea shore.’ The student must then pass on the sentence (as they interpret
it) by whispering it to the next child, and so on until the message reaches
the student at the other end of the line. The last student must say the
sentence as they have interpreted it as the last person in the group.
Discussion Topic – Talk about how messages that are passed through many
different ears can be misheard or misunderstood and why it is important
to listen carefully to what others are saying.