"Sit down, Joe!" "Joe, Tyler's trying to talk at the moment. Please wait until she's finished." "Chairs are for sitting on, not climbing. Please, sit!"
Do you recognise Joe? Is Joe in your group? These kids cannot sit still or pay attention. They act on impulse, wiggle in their seats, move around a lot, talk too much or interrupt others.
Studies show that about 9% of kids (9 out of every 100) will display these characteristics, and three times as many boys as girls. They are not bad or lazy or stupid. But they do require some help and encouragement to sit still, pay attention or complete a task.
So.. what do you do? Many of the programs that you use will probably include strategies that will assist these kids. Allow kids to move frequently. We rotate the kids through various activity stations every 10 minutes. We use music as a tool for transition. The different activity/learning stations employ multi-sensory strategies when presenting the activity. We also hand out something for these kids to manipulate (stress ball, paper folding, clay) when they are engaged in listening, especially during our opening and closing sessions. You can buy these squishee stress balls from toy shops and Australian Geographic or you can make you own. (You can even create these characters for a craft activity.)
You will need:
*balloon
*funnel (I cut a soft-drink bottle in half and use the spout end as a funnel.)
*sugar, salt, sand or dried lentils
*googly eyes
*yarn
*glue
*permanent markers
Directions:
1. Insert the tip of the funnel into the balloon. Fill with sugar, salt, sand or lentils. (This is actually harder than it sounds and will take some time. If you want to do this activity with kids, you might like to fill the balloons beforehand.)
2. Tie the balloon closed.
3. Glue on googly eyes, yarn for hair
4. Draw extra details with permanent marker- nose, mouth, eyebrows
Hand these fun stress balls out to those kids that need to keep their hands occupied.
Do you recognise Joe? Is Joe in your group? These kids cannot sit still or pay attention. They act on impulse, wiggle in their seats, move around a lot, talk too much or interrupt others.
Studies show that about 9% of kids (9 out of every 100) will display these characteristics, and three times as many boys as girls. They are not bad or lazy or stupid. But they do require some help and encouragement to sit still, pay attention or complete a task.
So.. what do you do? Many of the programs that you use will probably include strategies that will assist these kids. Allow kids to move frequently. We rotate the kids through various activity stations every 10 minutes. We use music as a tool for transition. The different activity/learning stations employ multi-sensory strategies when presenting the activity. We also hand out something for these kids to manipulate (stress ball, paper folding, clay) when they are engaged in listening, especially during our opening and closing sessions. You can buy these squishee stress balls from toy shops and Australian Geographic or you can make you own. (You can even create these characters for a craft activity.)
You will need:
*balloon
*funnel (I cut a soft-drink bottle in half and use the spout end as a funnel.)
*sugar, salt, sand or dried lentils
*googly eyes
*yarn
*glue
*permanent markers
Directions:
1. Insert the tip of the funnel into the balloon. Fill with sugar, salt, sand or lentils. (This is actually harder than it sounds and will take some time. If you want to do this activity with kids, you might like to fill the balloons beforehand.)
2. Tie the balloon closed.
3. Glue on googly eyes, yarn for hair
4. Draw extra details with permanent marker- nose, mouth, eyebrows
Hand these fun stress balls out to those kids that need to keep their hands occupied.
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