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Those surely are big groups of students! It sounds like the more active they can be, the less disruptive they will be as they clearly are not yet able to sit and attend. It might help to mix those "sit and listen" times in between more active times.  I would give each activity only about 5 minutes so their attention moves quickly from one thing to the next. Also, at this age I would ignore any behaviors that can be ignored (such as crawling under tables, shoe laces, etc.) as much as possible and continue to give lots of attention to the students who are cooperating. Kindergardeners tend to be drawn in more quickly if others are getting the attention. Any time you attend to inappropriate behavior, it is being reinforced as a way to get your attention. Also, they are learning sometimes even when we think they aren't paying attention. Of course hitting can't be ignored, but I would deal with it quickly by separating the student from the others with a straightforward statement such as "Hitting is not okay here. You may join the group when the timer goes off." Clearly the goal is to have a class of students who can sit and listen and cooperate, but it takes time with some groups.

Since you expect that some of these students might be evaluated for special education services, it is important to have specific records of their behavior. I have found it easier to keep statistics by creating a code (OOS for out of seat, for example) and putting little strips of masking tape right on my inner arm. (Hopefully, the arm licker isn't allergic to masking tape!) I put the student's initials on a piece of tape and tally the behaviors during several class periods. I have been able to record up to six kids in a period this way. At the end of the period, I stick the tape on my desk or a piece of paper, and at the end of the day, I chart it. This is much more helpful for evaluation than guessing how often the behavior happens and also allows you to see trends in the behavior quite easily.

I hope at least some of this helps.

Thank you Kate!  I will certainly follow your advice on the 5 minute attention span, and ignore the crawling.  I haven't had much experience with the little ones and wasn't clear what to do about the small stuff.  I will ignore it now and see how that goes.

Many thanks.

I would also suggest using some consistent attention getters... "1,2,3. Eyes on me!"  And, "open shut them. open shut them. give a little clap.  Open shut them. Open shut them. Lay them in your lap." Once they get a hang of it, they will know what's expected and you'll have a moment to jump into learning before distractions begin again. 

I agree with Kate on the 5 minute attention span. It may seem difficult to plan but you could always come back to something slightly different.  Also, with science at that age, it's important to make it fun and tactile.  The more they can touch and feel, the more they'll want to learn more...and it might keep their hands occupied for a bit.

Hang in there!

I have taught Kindergarten for many years and they respond immediately to rhymes and songs.  The following I learned from Dr. Jean Feldman (google her for her website).  

Tootsie roll (roll your hands around each other)

Lollipop (pretend to lick a lollipop)

We've been talking (talk with your hands- opening and closing them)

Now let's stop! (either hold out your palm to signal stop or cover mouth with hand)

Dr. Jean was able to quiet an entire conference room of chatty K teachers with this rhyme.

After you hook the students into the lesson (hopefully hands on), remind them of your behavior expectations, consequences (staying on rug or sitting in chairs - somewhere away from the group) and then FOLLOW through.  I always ask the class, "Raise your hand if you can follow the rules."   Remember too you must be super explicit with little ones.  Don't expect them to know what the rules are.  They should be demonstrated because just talking about them is not explicit enough.   And whenever they forget a rule, demo the correct rule again - using volunteers.     

Sounds like excellent advice, May, and it certainly is good to hear from a teacher with so much kindergarten experience. Although Jean has the added challenge of being with the kindergarten students only a portion of their day, it is likely that she can establish routines that will help with their attention. Jean, have you asked their general kindergarten teachers what kind of routines they use to regain students' attention? If they have something that the students are accustomed to, it might be more efficient to use the same thing.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the masking tape idea.  Thanks!

I like the masking tape idea too!  I did something similar - a tip I got from my friend, Jan.  Put a piece of paper around your wrist like a bracelet and keep your behavior data on the bracelet. 

  I am a recently retired K teacher and I totally agree that classroom management is the key to a successful year.  You cannot teach children who are not available for learning. 

  I appreciate and agree with all of the wonderful suggestions written above.  I also feel that creating a classroom community is key.  Maybe give your class a special name.  We were the Kindergarten Ants.  I found that we had a lot in common with ants (smallest in the school, strong, hard working, work together, etc.).  We learned about ants to help us understand the name and we had songs about out class.  I also put my kids (24 or 25usually) into cooperative teams for working at centers.  They picked their own team name and earned points towards rewards that were given at the end of a 6 day rotation.  It was important to help team members reach goals in order to earn points and this promoted lots of cooperation.  Teams changed throught the year and team names went along with themes that we were learning about.  This helped children work with other class memebers and it helped me separate behavior problems as they came up.  There are more details to the strategy but that would take too much of your time to read.

   I am interested to hear from someone who may have a particular problem similar to one that my former team mate has this year.  She has a girl in her class with major emotional issues who runs out of the classroom.  My friend does not have a full time aide and is sometimes alone when this happens.  Of course, she calls the office for help and she is excellent at using many strategies for behavior management with special needs children.  I was just wondering if anyone had a suggestion that may have worked.  This child is also very loud and disruptive, demanding most of the teacher attention for her.  Each day is a terribly draining day for my friend.  Parents are not really helpful.  In fact, the child is late to school most days or absent 1 to 2 days each week.  This makes consistency nearly impossible.

   Any words of wisdom would be welcome.

I also saw some of Dr. Jean Feldman's ideas at work in my grandson's kindergarden class. The teacher, who was in her mid-seventies, had a lively group of 25 students with whom she kept motivated and captivated by many of Dr. Jean's catchy phrases and sayings. My little guy, who is very high-energy, stayed right with her and learned alot that year. I was VERY impressed with both Dr. Jean and that fine educator!

Hello! I've taught since the early '90s [3 year olds thru 2nd grade], and the BEST program ever for 'little kid' science was called AIMS. My district [Prince George's County, MD public schools] used to really push this program-lots of inservices, and free curriculum binders! AIMS had seasonal and thematic units, most of which were aligned to our state standards. Sadly, I can no longer remember what AIMS stands for, but I believe our system bought it, so you might be able to Google it. Good to hear someone is still teaching science to the littel ones, even if it is not a tested subject :)

Leslie, I see that you have posted your friend's concern under a separate topic. Thank you for doing so. I hope you will receive more responses that way.

Oooo... I love this cue song! I too use songs and singing to grab my kindergartners...I also use very different voices (alien, pirate, whispering) to get their attention as well. Thank you for sharing this! I'm going to use it this week!

Kelly,

  What song are you referring to?  I think I missed something.

Oh, I'm sorry. I was referring to May Ryan's Tootsie Roll song/chant. My computer must have replied to your posting, when in fact I was trying to reply to her.

Hi Kelly,

I explained the Tootsie Roll chant in my original posting (not a song, just a chant)  I just visited Dr. Jean's website and discovered she is on youtube.  This link goes to her explaining all sorts of cheers she uses with the kids.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hsOFYEMSvI    I also think there's a link on her site where you can print out all her cheers because I did that and put them all on 3x5 cards on a ring.  The students loved them.  Notice that on the youtube link, there's a lot of more Dr. Jean videos.

Dr. Jean ROCKS! She came & did a training for all the Early Childhood people in our county a few years ago--one of the top 5 trainings I've been to in 20 years of teaching :) MB

I have a class of 22 K-5.  We have tried everything for behavior and nothing seems to help.  We have tried stickers for those we find doing the right thing, treasure box, rewards in  a jar towards class celebration.  Our class just does not want to listen and is very disrespectful. They use language you should never hear a 5-6 year old say as well. 98 days of school and they still cannot go down the hall quietly or sit and so their work quietly.  We will welcome any suggestions to help our classroom. Have used Dr. Jean songs as well. All the class is  low income families with very little support from the home. 

Thanks!

WOW.  That seems to be the trend this year, unfortunately.  Since I am retired and have more time now, I have been watching the Super Nanny shows hoping to get some strategies that could be used in the classroom.  So many of her strategies are wonderful but are really meant to be used by parents at home.  That being said, I saw an interesting trend to her work.  One, clear establishment of the rules.  (I think most of us do this.)  Second, consistency in identifying when a child has broken a rule.  (We are not so good at the consistency.)  Third, consistency in the consequence for breaking a rule.  (Again, not so good.)  And fourth, CLOSURE.  The closure involves an apology from the child to the parent/teacher and a hug.  This is where I believe I failed miserably as a teacher.  

  So I tried to used the fourth strategy when I went in to sub in my friend's Kindergarten room.  The children know me because I have been there before.  I particularly focused on 2 little boys who had given me trouble before.  I readily took them out of centers for 5 minutes (one minute for each year of age according to Super Nanny) and told them what the infraction was.  (I had also set this up before center time as a consequence.)  At the end of 5 minutes I had them apologize to me for disrupting my teaching and asked them to tell me what rule they had broken (all the usual stuff) and THEN we hugged.  IT WAS OVER.  I think this last stage is so important because it lifts the "bad boy" image off and gives a fresh start.

  Obviously this will NOT work the first time.  If you have ever watched Super Nanny, it takes a while for the kids to buy into the system.  But she is extremely persistent and consistent and gets amazing results with some of the rudest children I have ever seen.

  Please let me know if you try this.  If you have never watched Super Nanny, please try to watch a few episodes on cable.

Have you tried consequences?  Here are some that have worked for me.  At recess, you put the child in another room. You need to ok this with another teacher however.  At our school we have different recess times so it works.   If you're staying in your room, the child stays at his/her desk.  My parents always picked up their students at our back door so well behaved students got to line up and then I'd dismiss them to their parents.  The other ones had to stay seated and their parent would have to come into the room to retrieve their child.  That way I could talk to the parent.  It was easy for me though because I speak Spanish.  Parents would still learn, however, that their child was misbehaving.  Usually this is enough as the children want to leave with the rest of the class.  

I LOVE Super Nanny.  She really teaches perseverance to parents when it comes to bedtime.  I also like to see the systems she sets up. Leslie, I like that you have added the hug to the K kids after they have served their consequence.  Being consistent is really hard to do 100% of the time but BOY! Does it ever pay off!