Tell children you will read them a story and that you want them to raise their hands whenever they hear a particular word. Ask all the children to listen for the same word, divide the class into groups and assign a different word to each group or tell children to raise their hands whenever they hear a word beginning with a particular sound in a sentence read to them. In addition to listening for words, children should answer questions about the story's plot or repeat the gist of each sentence read.
Hold a scavenger hunt with verbal clues consisting of individual words, phrases or sentences. Clues may be riddles, or they may clearly name or describe the object sought. Objects may be specified and retrieved one at a time, or in groups.
Hold a race in which you ask each child to perform one or more tasks; the child who completes his tasks the fastest wins the race. Issue a different one-, two- or three-step command to each child. An example of a one-step command is: “Get the truck.” A two-step command is: “Put the truck under the chair.” A three-step command is “Put the truck under the chair and sit down.”
Tell children you will describe one or more of them. They should stand up when the description refers to them, and sit down when the description does not refer to them. Each additional description may refer to some, none or all of the children already standing. For example, if the initial description is "blue eyes," a subsequent description of “blue shoes” or “blond hair” will apply to only some of the blue-eyed children already standing.
Tell children you will describe something and you want them to guess what it is. Each description should effectively eliminate some items that may have fit with earlier descriptions. Children should list items meeting the cumulative specifications after each description is given, or after all the descriptions are given.
Present children a pattern such as "rabbit, dog, rabbit, dog, rabbit" and ask them what comes next. Patterns and the instructions to guess what comes next may be given in isolation, or they may be embedded in a story.