An Unsettled Class, Need Some Circle Time Ideas.

[Guest]

Evening everyone,

What an exhausting start to the week! I have presently got a class of 30 Reception Class children and boy are they a manic lot. They are always going to be loud and that is fine with me as long as it is productive. However over the last couple of weeks and especially today, they have been totally manic e.g.

> Shouting at each other

> Running around the classroom

> Diving on top of each other on the carpet

> hurting each other

> general silliness

I have tried all the obvious e.g. class rules, rewards for individuals and for whole class etc.

Basically I now feel like I am nagging them and that makes me feel bad. Anyone got some good ideas to make this class gel and so that I can have a better day tomorrow??????

Much appreciated.xxx

[Guest]

Mondays....Agh i hate them, the chn have been cooped up over the weekend, anf they get back and the same for me, they take a day to settle. I rarely do any focus activities on amonday because they need that child initiated time to get back into it. Ive got a clear plastic jar, and it really works a treat. Around the outside of it I have put an elastic band about a 3rd of the way up and a stickersaying ' Lets all work together as a team to achieve our reward'. If the chn are listening, being kind, brilliant at tidy up time etc where they have worked together they receieve a class Bear (compare bear) or two three, depending on how super they were. These bears keep being added to the class jar and when trhey reach the elastic band they receive aclass treat....haribos/freedos etc. I then move the elastic band further up the jar for next challenge....it really helps

 

 

xxx

[Panders]

I'm pre-school, but we were noticing to day that the children appeared more manic than we have ever known them!

 

We have in the past done similar to popcorn, the children had to be "rewarded" with 20 marbles during the week to get a treat, and wicked as it was at the time we took out marbles when we felt they were not behaving well and told them why. These days I might just say none had been earned today, seems a little mean to take them away!

 

Are the children getting enough free flow play outside? that can help too. We have also had whispering times, when adults whisper and children must too, they find that good fun, sometimes when it just gets too noisy I turn out all the lights, this stops them in their tracks straightaway so that I can talk to them and remind them just how noisy they are becoming.

[Guest]

We use a jar too but with the glass beads as the children like the clink, clink!

[Guest]

We have 'teampoints' - we have a laminated number line on the wall (0-20) and small photos of all the children. We catch them being good and award a teampoint. Children move their photo along one square. When they reach number 20, we give them a big clap and a 'special' sticker to wear home.

The children LOVE it! Also good for number recognition, counting etc.

[Guest]

Fishcake I think your teampoint idea is brilliant!

 

I can fourth the marbles/toys in a jar trick, it worked a treat on my last class (Nursery) and got to the point where I just had to rattle the jar and they would desperately try to show me they were behaving themselves. I used to let children put the marbles in one at a time which they loved and it had a useful numeracy link because every (flipping!) time we added some they wanted to count all of them