some tricks to calm down the group and restore the discipline

There are times when we need the kids to be quiet and concentrated. We all know that the attention span of children is, generally speaking, short and will vary depending on many factors. Just to sum it up very briefly, we have to take into consideration that:

- each child has a different attention span
- the more children are tired (hungry, stressed,excited,etc) the more difficult it is for them to concentrate (doesn't it apply to all of us?)
- the bigger the group, the more difficult to control a positive environment to facilitate better concentration
- mixed-ability classes are, again, more difficult to handle in this respect
- the longer the class, the harder it gets to control the discipline
- last but not least, let's not forget that the way we, the teachers, behave also affects our pupils' ability to concentrate. If we are in a bad mood, which can translate into a lot of shouting and losing our patience, our pupils will pick it up immediately. Stressed teachers mean stressed kids and, so, the vicious cycle starts.

In case of my groups, some are naturally so quiet that it does not require a lot effort on my part to calm them down - some basic tricks will do - while other groups are fidgety and impatient, which calls for some special, more complicated and highly personalised methods.

Here are some of the basic tricks (can work well both for the ''easy-going'' groups and the more ''trouble-makers'' like classes, tending to be short-term solutions in the latter case)


- story time!
If you anticipate that you are going to have a problematic class (e.g. in the afternoon, just before lunch,etc), try to do some reading-listening activities rather than games or speaking tasks.

- practice spelling and handwriting

Students copy sentences or words from the board. Works well, but not in case of children who don't like or can't write well enough

- ''freeze'' game

Sometimes the best way to get some peace and quiet is just to...start it and let it keep rolling. I have an agreement with my kids that when I count to 3 and say the magic word ''freeze'' the first person who moves or says something loses the game. When the kids ''freeze'' I lower my voice to whispering and reduce my body language to the absolute minimum to get the kids into the ''silence'' mood. If the class is particularily fidgety, I even introduce some relaxation exercises (e.g. close your eyes...imagine a flower...the flower is big and purple...look, there is a cat next to the flower, etc)

- start to sing a song or recite a chant

To get the kids' attention, I often start to either sing a song or a chant they know well. Then, I very quickly start the activity I had planned and, normally, the kids follow me immediately.

- do a short writing activity in the notebook

This trick is similar to the previous one. To get better results, I always say that the pupils who do the task correctly and in SILENCE (stress ''silence'') will get a reward (in my case, I use stickers). Now. if we use such an activity as a ''calmer'', we have to bear in mind that it should be very easy. Confusion creats noise and chaos! So, we need to make sure that the kids know exactly what to do.


If these tricks don't work and I see that the group keeps resisting the discipline and the routine, I talk to their tutor. Sometimes a small intervention on the tutor's part helps a lot. If it doesn't help, I introduce a reward/punishment system and keep track of each class to analyse and fix the problem. But...this is a different story for a different post I hope to write soon.

Working with ''can''

So, here we are. Time flies! It's been almost two months since we started and I must say I'm very happy with my groups! The first graders are still a bit ''wild'' but on the right track to get more civilised, while the second graders couldn't be sweeter and more eager to work. Naturally, there are always exceptions, but I can't complain, the kids are, in overall, great!

Today I had a really wonderful day with my kids, which inspired me to share some ideas on how to incorporate and practice ''can'' and ''can't''. You must have a good verb base, though. In my case, we devoted the entire first unit to ''action verbs'' and, so, the kids are already well equipped with some solid vocabulary in this respect.

The second unit of my coursebook (Sprint) focuses on farm and wild animals and what they can and can't do.

IDEA one: Frogs can jump in the jungle :-D

Today, with one of my groups I was planning to do a short and wrap-up activity which was preceeded by the following steps:

On the left side of the board I put pics of four animals: snake-duck-monkey-frog
In the centre I wrote: ''can'' and ''can't''
On the right side of the board I blue tagged four action verbs (already familiar to the kids): fly - climb-crawl-jump

Students were coming to the board and matching the animals with what they could and couldn't do. In order to avoid messy lines, we used red chalk for ''can'' sentences and blue chalk for ''can't sentences''. So, we came up with sentences like: ''Monkeys can climb'' or ''Monkeys can't fly''.

And so we got to the final wrap-up activity: students had to create at least two sentences of their own. One with ''can'' and one with ''can't'' following the model we provided on the board earlier on.

I said that I would hang on the wall the most interesting sentences and this is when the activity started to get more and more interesting. The kids really loved it! Some of them came up with ten and more sentences and they had real fun while reading them aloud. The winners of this small contest were the following two sentences:

Frogs can jump in the jungle.

Chicks can sleep on the farm.

But then I thought that it would be a great idea to create a big poster with sentences that came from all the children. What is more, they would be signed with a name of each child resposible for their creation. The children were very enthusiatic about the idea, so, I'm hoping to hang the poster on the classroom's walls next week.

SILLY SAFARI

This idea is originally based on one activity taken from Sprint 2.

More ideas for first days at school found on the Internet

I've been surfing the Net in search for some new ideas and I found this one, I think I'll try it out tomorrow:

Toss The Smile (Icebreaker)

Children can sit in circle or throughout the room as long as everyone can see each other. Identify one child as the "smile tosser". All children are to keep a straight, serious face while the smile tosser smiles. The smile tosser will smile at all players trying to get them to crack a smile or laugh. If anyone smiles or laughs, they are out of the game. Those out of the game must be absolutely quiet during the rest of the game. The smile tosser can wipe off his smile with his hand and throw it to another player if he wishes. The receiving player will put on the smile and be the new smile tosser. You can even set a time limit on how long your smile tosser is allowed to keep his role. 

 

Source: CLICK HERE

 If you teach older kids, you might find this activity useful: CLICK HERE

Post-activity note:

It worked wonderfully with the quieter groups, but you have to be careful if your group is rather fidgety and gets carried away easily. In the latter case, it's better to leave it for the very last minutes of the lesson. In general, it is a very nice energiser-filler and helps the teacher to bond with the class.

It doesn't have to be an ice-breaker, though!

First day(s) at school!

Here are some of the games I use with my kids during their very first days at school. As we should not really count on any additional materials (pencils, pens - some of the kids don't even have a pencil case yet - let alone the coursebook...!) most of the ideas below are simple oral games.

Here we go...!

Getting to know each other

1. BALL games (kids love catching the ball and it also introduces some movement, which is good for the fidgety ones, so for me it works fantastic to always have a small ball at hand)

a)What´s your name?

The T throws a ball to each Ss asking what their names are.The T says: Nice to meet you, X.

b) Hot potato: Ss pass the ball quickly saying> My name is…X. What's your name?

Ss must not let the ball fall. If it does, they start the game again.

c)What's your favourite..?:  T asks various questions (What’s your favourite colour, toy,etc) and throws the ball to elicit the answers. It’s important to remind that ONLY those children who have the ball can talk. The others have to listen and do not disturb. It's a good way to introduce (reinforce) the concept of ''only one person at a time'' can talk (we know how important that is with small kids!)

d) Teach a CHANT:

Hi, hello and how do you do!

We all want to say: hello to you!

Hi! (kids wave their hands)

I start each class with this chant.

2. Second meeting: revise the names

WHO IS MISSING: One S is blindfolded. Another S (or two) leaves the classroom. The blindfolded S has to guess who is missing. T can help with some questions, asking the class if the person missing is a boy or a girl, etc.

''Checking their level'' games

a) BALL: Ss pass a ball quickly saying one word in English and kids and no words can be repeated. The ss who repeat the word are out. The last 5 are the winners.

b) STAND UP AND TOUCH: Individual students are asked to stand up and touch the objects called by the teacher (E.g: stand up and touch a table/something blue/a teacher,etc).

Note> I use this game to teach (remind) the students that everybody should wait for their turn and not to say the answers aloud without raising their hands.

c) get this FLASHCARD!: T shows a picture (flashcard) and asks Ss individually what they can see. If the S knows the answer, they get to keep the flashcard on their desk. It’s a good way of seeing who the best students and the weakest students are. May seem simple, but kids love this game!

VARIATION: If Ss are good, you can also write the words that come up on the blackboard

3. Revision and back to school games (T already knows  the groups and Ss know each other, too)

a)WHO IS IT?

One S is blindfolded. They have to recognize then their classmate. T helps by asking the class some questions: Is it a boy or a girl? Is he tall or short? What colour are his, her eyes, etc? 

My students find this game very funny :-)

4. Various games

b) MOVEMENT ORDERS or Simon says. Don’t forget to include: FREEZE

c) DRAW… (paper and blue tack needed!) something you like/your favourite animal,etc. The T collects then the drawing and puts them on the blackboard. Kids talk about their drawings

d) HOT and COLD: One S leaves the classroom. We hide an object. The S comes back and he/she has to find the object. The class gives him hints with hot/cold (warm, freezing can be added)

I printed this ''cheatsheet'' out and I put it on the table so that I could have it at hand. I glanced at it each time I wasn't sure with which game to continue.