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I want to thank all of you for sending suggestions here are my request the responses to my request. Hello and Happy New Year I just started working in two different schools with kindergarten children. In one school I may get two classes together and I may have over 40 children at the time with one or two assistants. It is very hard to control the children as they fight and tease each other. It gets warm in the classroom as they come at the end of the day with their coats. I have tried routines, breaking the lesson into several activities including movement, finger play, songs, coloring and listening to a story. They also have a routine about coming into the library, putting their coats away, and leaving. I have them for 35 minutes. It seems that I waste about 15-20 minutes settling them. Any suggestions.? I will post them as a Hit if someone asks me to. Madeleine Zember, Librarian Early Childhood Center Hempstead, NY drjesons@gmail.com jo turrentine <joturrentine@yahoo.com> I was in this situation one year and I never really found a good solution. Even with 3 people to supervise they still were not on task. This was Kindergarten. We finally split them into 2 groups and I took one group and the assistant led the other. The prinicpal supported me and we never did that again. This is not much help for you I realize. Hi Madeleine, I would consider using the assistants that come along. Split the group into three. Have three activities - book selection (assistant-supervised), direct instruction/reading/storytelling (you) and another activity, perhaps based on a story read last week - e.g. book response, coloring, more by the author (assistant-supervised). Rotate the three activities in over 25 mins, which leaves ten minutes for actual checkout. When sorting out groups, make sure the kids that drive each other nuts aren't together. Cheers, Trish Trish Wade Teacher-Librarian & Website Manager Eatons Hill State School Queensland AUSTRALIA School Site http://www.eatohillss.eq.edu.au Library BookBlog: http://ehsslibrary.edublogs.org/ dtwade@optusnet.com.au Ph 3264 9222 Fax 3264 9000 Ellen Rubin <bookbabe@njrubin.us> Hi Madeleine, Please post a hit. It sounds like you have to have a lot of audience participation situations not to mention movement opportunities. Do the children also check books out? Ellen Rubin, Librarian Elisabeth Morrow School Englewood, NJ I use colored name tags (3" X 5" index cards with two holes punched on the top to accommodate a length of string) with their library barcode on them. They wear these around their necks. These act as position holders in story time and their library card when they check out. I use these same name tags for all classes up to 5th grade when I switch to pin type nametags. I place the nametags on the floor, in the story area, usually boy- girl- boy--- I put nervous nellys, visually impaired- hard of hearing etc at the front or at the back as required. . I change the name tag placement every week so everyone gets a chance to sit up front. We do our rules poster on an easel (pretzel legs, hands in lap (not touching name tag), eyes on my eyes, mouths closed). I complement them profusely. ( if you need a good example of pretzel legs look at Jon... I love the way Jane is doing everything on our poster. I use the Tribes posters at the beginning of the year to demonstrate what I want, introducing a different poster each week till we have done them all (attentive listening, mutual respect, appreciations, participation, and no put downs). I do a story, 2-3 minute lesson (title, check out, picture book0 ), a guessing book (Like tanya toban's books about shapes numbers things, spots, who been here, ABC, etc. ) every one gets to guess at one page or thing each week. I relate a question I ask each student each week, I relate these to the lesson or story. If the story has to do with pets I ask them their favorite pet, favorite color, Name one person in your family, etc. I do 3 finger plays between each activity. When we are done checking out they line up and sit on the floor and read till the teacher comes. Good luck. My school district believes in small class sizes (18-22 per class). "Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container." --Unknown BJ Rae School Library Media Specialist Northside Elementary School Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District Middleton Wisconsin bonnier@mcpasd.k12.wi.us Becky Mosbacher <bmosbacher@hellgate.k12.mt.us> Is there a state standard about how large a class one teacher can legally accommodate? My guess is that there is. You don't mention whether or not you have an aide or whether another teacher accompanies the class to the library. I'd look into the legality of class size and try to address it that way Hi, I have my kindergarteners alone for about 15 min. There are anywhere from 23-29 of them. I have 4-6 classes depending upon enrollment for the year. I spend about 30 seconds quieting them down and here is what I do. At the beginning of the year I teach them a concept called library manners. Library manners includes the following eyes on teacher arms folded ears listening mouths quiet. We practice this a few times (2-3) with a few reinforcements by way of reminders over the next 3-4 weeks. The term "Library manners" becomes their buzz or signal word. As soon as they arrive all I need do is to say "Show me library manners" and they are usually with me. I tell them to "show me" as opposed to "tell me what they are" because it saves valuable time. All kindergarteners love to talk. Once in a while, if everyone is not with me, I will point out 2-3 kids with great "library manners" and then everyone is with me. We then have our mini lesson or story and a brief discussion at the end which allows the kids to "share" what they learned and satisfy that itch to talk. :} Good luck Serena Hayes Library Media Specialist Heber Valley Elementary Heber, Utah shayes@syptec.com Jill Brown <buflib@yahoo.com> Hi - Don't look at the "settling" time as being wasted. Full body movement, hand clapping routines, short rhymes and chants - all which could be repeated during the other activities - are important for the little ones. Use them to set up the story theme - or not. And repeat them from week to week. Familiarity breeds contentment! Get your assistants to sit with the really disruptive ones. Bring the disruptive ones up front once in a while and have them "lead" the activity. I am a former Kdg teachers and preschool public library specialist. Hi, Sounds like a problem! If there are assistants to help with the children, and you have the space, maybe you could break them into two groups; one group is supervised by the assistant and is doing an art project related to the day's story, or they are choosing books, while the other group is with you doing a story, songs, or activity? Mary Walter retired from Arlington County VA http://kidslearningstuff.blogspot.com P.S. Hello to Hempstead! One of my daughters graduated from Hofstra and loved it there. One of the biggest suggestions I can give is to get a sit down routine, whether its at tables or on a rug. I used to have problems with Kinders changing their spot to sit. I bought a rug with colored shapes on it. When the students came in they either pulled a shape out of a bag (they couldn't look) and sat on that colored shaped. On other days I would simple tell them a color. They were not allowed to change places once they sat down. I've also assigned seats at tables, spending one whole class period practicing sitting down. You could do something similar with chairs by placing a shape on the back of the chair. Paula Laurita Library Sciences Editor http://librarysciences.bellaonline.com Nancy Cave <nccave@comcast.net> I seem to spend a lot of time on behavior training. I have decided my goal for the kinders is library behavior. Youse <cyouse@gmail.com> I have the same problem. I would love to see a hit. I have that many kids with no or one assistant for fifty minutes at a time. I have been resorting to United Streaming---they now know all the words to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and we watch a lot of Read-alee-Dee. Cheryl Youse, MLS Media Specialist J. L. Lomax Elementary School 1450 Howell Road Valdosta, GA 31601 229/333-8523 cyouse@gmail.com Sincerely, <cyouse@gmail.com> Madeleine Zember, Librarian Early Childhood Center Hempstead, NY <cyouse@gmail.com>drjesons@gmail.com <cyouse@gmail.com> -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. 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