children do not listen

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2002 : September : 12

children do not listen
By jay

How long is your circle time? If you are losing the class, then perhaps it's too long this early in the year. 10 or 15 min should be the max in Sept. Instead of focusing on poor behavior, I focus on a child that is doing
what she should, and say "oh, I like the way Lori is sitting and ready to listen! Let me see if I can find someone else too!" And then I start naming names as each child. I also have given stickers for good behavior..making sure eventually all students are rewarded. Children this age only want to please you! They cannot remember what happened yesterday, so to hold them responsible

for Monday's behavior for a week is not age appropriate. 5 minutes or 10 minutes is meaningless to them also, and you will end up taking away recess from the most active children who need it the most...don't do this..you're just punishing yourself!! (Our librarian tried giving out yellow and red cards to my Ks last year. One boy received 3 in 20 minutes and he was proud because he thought he was winning a game!)
If you use lots of songs and fingerplays, the children will join in, and that's one way to get everyone's attention, get the wiggles out, and get them on task. Then you can start praising good behavior.