How it works

How to use Minute of Listening

Minute of Listening is a creative tool, which means there are lots of ways you can use it, including ones we haven’t thought of!

Here are some ideas and suggestions drawn from the creative and resourceful teachers who are already using Minute of Listening to help get you started. They will work just as well if you are at home!

Want to get the most out of Minute of Listening? Explore our training and CPD options.

Basic Minute of Listening exercise (5 minutes)

Do this on a daily basis to develop focus, extend vocabulary and contribute a structure to the day. Some teachers like to use Minute of Listening as a way of welcoming everyone at the start of the school day, or at a fixed point in the day to help children settle down after a break.

  1. Select a different minute each day.
  2. Click through to the player and listen to the minute
  3. Answer the questions that come at the end of the minute
  4. Find out what it was (if you want to!)
  5. Reflect on how the relationship between what you thought and what it actually was – how did the reality meet your expectations? How was it different? Were you surprised?

You can select minutes in different ways:

  1. You can choose one of the collections and methodically work your way through it. The collections are curated so you will hear something very different each day!
  2. Select by mood: We have tagged lots of the minutes by mood, so you can go to the Explore by Mood page and choose in that way instead.
  3. Select by topic/curriculum area. Lots of the minutes have also been tagged by curriculum area, so if you can use this page to find minutes that relate to other curriculum areas.
  4. Ask the children what they can remember and would like to hear again!

Extended Minute of Listening activities

  1. You could use one of the minutes as the starting point for a longer activity such as story writing, drawing or talking about feelings and emotions. There is a fantastic video here of Bristol teacher Laurel in action, doing all sorts of creative things with her class.
  2. You could use the Sound Diary worksheet on a regular basis to record and describe your responses. This could be a drawn response – particularly for younger children – or a written response, or a combination of the two.
  3. You could go on a sound walk and make a map of what you heard, using the Sound Mapping worksheet.
  4. Try the #CovidSoundScore Challenge!
  5. Develop a “word bank” of new vocabulary in the form of word cards, a notebook or PostIts that you can add to each time.
  6. World sound map: you could locate where on a map of the world different minutes are from.
  7. You could create your own minute!

Whatever you do, we would love to hear about what you are doing with Minute of Listening. Please contact us or use #MyMinuteOfListening!