Calming Strategies - Slice of Life Challenge, Day #27

March 27, 2018

When I found out I would be teaching 2nd grade this year, instead of enrichment classes, I was really excited to have my own homeroom. I had been teaching smaller, advanced classes for about 9 years, but lately the smaller class size had become bigger, and I felt I needed a change. I wanted to be the one that had the kids most of the day and not the one who was constantly pulling kids and creating inconveniences (that's not really true, but it sometimes felt like it over the years). I was excited to work with younger students all day, even though I knew it would be a really challenging.

One thing I new I wanted was an relaxed, comfortable class atmosphere. I liked the flexible seating idea, and I wanted my students to feel more at home and less overwhelmed by anchor charts all over the place. I chose a rug that was mostly green, blue sky bulletin board paper, and lots of animal pillows to bring some relaxation into the room. A lot of primary rooms are so full of letters and bright colors, which seems overstimulating to me.

The students that were going to be in my class had a reputation for being a handful. They still do. We are working on it, but they seem to have so much energy and no desire to sit and focus. They are so talkative and really distracted by each other - it's sort of a vicious cycle. Plus, there are 26 of them, which is pretty large for a second grade room.

Knowing this, I wanted to create a relaxing environment. I bought an essential oil diffuser. I made glitter bottles for them to use to calm down. I brought lots of Mozart, Bach, and Enya from home. We have MindYeti for mindfulness. I bought a Hoberman sphere for the students to practice breathing. I had all these high hopes for being able to reach them, calm them down, and turn them into focused thinking machines.

It hasn't been so successful. We are getting better, for sure. But the glitter bottles created a bit of an issue - there weren't enough for everyone, and then they would argue about them. I finally have about 28 of them made. We practice breathing with the Hoberman sphere and a student leader, but there are still kids (the ones that need it the most) that don't even try, keep eyes open, or over act when they breathe. They do love hearing Enya. MindYeti is another issue - they are very vocal when I start one they don't want to do - and with 26 students, there's always at least 5 that don't want to do the one I chose, so they protest. Which riles everyone up again. We're still working on it.

Today, a friend of mine posted a meme with a picture of this old toy on Facebook and I immediately thought of the fun and focus it would illicit from my students:

My great aunt and uncle had several of these. Is it possible it could help my students to focus and stop talking??? 

Is it sad that this was my thought when I saw this meme while on my spring break?

Do you have any suggestions for getting students (especially younger) to calm down and focus?