Friday freak out

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Home : 2004 : September : 26

Friday freak out
By Carolyn

It always takes kids' brains and bodies awhile to settle down after playtime. Perhaps you could be sure that you have them silent as they line up before they come indoors so that their brains and bodies get settled before
you come indoors. Give them a count: "I'm going to count to 30, then everybody will be silent for one minute before we go inside. If you're not quiet for that one minute, then we will all stand on the playground for five minutes tomorrow before we play."
I don't know why, but the urge to go to the bathroom with kids seems to be after recess. Always. The urge somehow mysteriously

wasn't there when they were playing. We all know why! I used to tell mine (I'm a related arts teacher now) when I was a classroom teacher that they HAD to use the bathroom during their free time, not afterwards! NOBODY was permitted to use the bathroom after recess. If that didn't work and they still asked, I'd tell them: "Okay, sure. The first five minutes of our playtime will be a trip to the bathroom." Then I'd take them to the bathroom before we went outside. I'd also announce that since the bathroom was offered before we went outside, they had absolutely NO reason to go when we came indoors again!

Also, as soon as they come in, you could turn on some quiet instrumental music and get their brain waves back on the quiet track again before you do anything else.

Twenty-five minutes of the unstructured time that you describe is a lot of time. I think it's too much unstructured time. I am imagining that for some of these children, it lacks purpose; therefore, it's do whatever time: go to the bathroom, get a drink, pester the teacher, etc.

How about having a structured read aloud? I used to devote the end-of-day time as a structured read-aloud time for the kids. Third graders would love, and would look forward to, your reading a novel each day as they come indoors. I read a book of my choice, usually, then they would keep a daily writers' journal of the story. Example: Day one--Child writes three-five sentences on a piece of plain white paper and illustrates what you have read. Day two--Child draws a picture of what you have read and writes three-to-five sentence summary. By the time you have finished with the story, they staple these together and create a book of their own. The results are really cute, and you can see what made the biggest impression on them. If you do this, pass out the paper before you go outside, then they'll be ready to start the moment you walk inside. Paper will already be ready for them, you just start reading.

I wouldn't give these children any time to waste. Perhaps if you make some of the changes suggested by the teachers here, you will find your day less chaotic.