Helping the Fidgety Learners

Hi friends!

I don’t know about you, but things are finally settling down now that we are close to 4 weeks into the school year. Students are S.L.O.W.L.Y. learning the rules of the classroom and each procedure {and yet, I still feel like there are SO many more still to learn}.

I’ve already figured out who my squirrelly little ones are {let’s be honest, we saw them from day one} and here are a few ways to combat and embrace the energy.

I have been doing a great job of incorporating brain breaks with GoNoOdle and my parents are loving it {*pat myself on the back*}. It really helps with those fidgety kids {you know the ones: you’ve sat them on the carpet for 5 seconds and they are already touching the kid next to them or talking to their neighbor or even screaming out they need to use the bathroom}. Pop-See-Ko is one of our favorite guided dance songs, really anything by Koo-Koo-Kangaroo is THE best

If you aren’t a GoNoOdle teacher, please please check it out! They have some REALLY fun dances for getting out jitters, some great relaxation and yoga for destress, and much more! One of my absolute FAVORITE features is the Youtube channel! You can save your students’ favorite Youtube videos {for example, I use “What Does The Letter Say” every day before we start our phonics lesson}, play them directly through GoNoOdle and grow your little monster {you’ll have to check it out to see what I mean, but it’s basically different levels depending on how often you use it}.

We are also using Bouncy Bands! This isn’t something I use for every student, but I honestly don’t see why not! If I had a classroom set, I’d gladly use them

They are simply a band you easily place around your students’ chair or desk legs. This allows the student to release that extra energy while sitting down. So maybe instead of tapping or tossing their pencil in the air every 2 seconds {see little one’s legs below}, they can release the energy through their legs. This little one puts his feet behind the band and pushes forward. It gives him something to do while he works instead of tap tap tapping away or standing up and disrupting others.

Now this little one, he’s just a shorty He mostly uses it to rest his feet because, well, his feet don’t touch the ground! It’s just the cutest. It’s nice for me because I don’t have to keep asking him to put his feet down, now he likes to keep them down since they can finally touch something down there!

If you’d like to check out these Bouncy Bands for yourself, visit them at their website or Facebook. You can also grab these 15% off from their website with the code: 15OFF through 9/26!

If you liked this post, you may want to check out these other posts I’ve done on classroom management:

What are some ways that you help release that extra energy from your little ones throughout the day?