Organizing the Classroom

Zoe’s Letter

Hi,

I’m a preschool teacher in a child care center and I have a concern about a four-year old boy, Robby. He’s high energy! I don’t want to label him but I am at my whit’s end. He is impulsive and incapable of controlling his own body. He often uses his whole body inappropriately to communicate and participate in play. He flails round and round in circles, uses karate chops, kicks his feet and throws toys around the room. He will “flop ” around at circle time and at lunch time.

During these active movements, he accidentally collides with other children. He is sorry when accidents happened.

Robby will sleeps between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. But When he lies down, his body collapses beneath him, and as he falls asleep, he yells out and flops around like a like a fish out of water.

Coping with Robby’s uncontrolled movements is exhausting. It’s a challenge for the other children to play with him. I try and take him and the class outside as early as possible after everyone arrives but I can’t do that every day.

He is a lovable whirlwind constantly on the move and unable to remain still. I don’t want to label him with ADHD or have him evaluated yet.

There are moments of calm. He can be well mannered and respectful to others especially when he plays with trains and looks at books. Robby is already reading at a 1^st grade level.

I am concerned about the safety of the other children. They can easily get hurt when Robby is out of control.

Your help will be much appreciated,

Zoe

Coping with Robby’s uncontrolled movements is exhausting.

Our Response

Dear Zoe

Thank you for your letter. In general, four-year-olds are very active as they seek independence. We understand the challenges you face and hope to support you, Robby and the other children in your care.

The scope of the teaching challenges tells us:

You are teaching in a childcare center in which Robby is likely to spend long periods of time during the day;

Robby is a highly energetic boy who is not yet able to control his own physical movement;
Robby energetic physical movement requires close supervision. This puts a strain on the educators;
Robby creates a safety risk to himself, to educators and to the other children in the classroom;
Robby is an able child who already reads at a 1^st grade level.

We are suggesting that you introduce a number of strategies into your classroom that will help overcome the challenges Robby, the other children and the educators face.

He is a lovable whirlwind constantly on the move and unable to remain still.

Provide Robby with physical play opportunities that require him to use his physical skills in a purposeful and controlled way.

A wonderful, quick read is the article, Building an encouraging classroom with boys in mind by King M. with Gartrell, D. It gives suggestions to set up a fitness center in a well-organized classroom in which Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is used. Depending on your classroom space, it is easy to modify the fitness center to fit your classroom.

https://drjuliejg.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2-build-enc-env-boys.pdf

The fitness center will help you overcome your teaching challenges by enabling:

Robby to use his physical energy appropriately and so develop more control over his movement;
Educators to effectively supervise Robby’s physical play and so reduce the stress levels they currently work under;
Robby to engage in purposeful physical play and so reduce safety risks in the classroom.

Overview of information on Developmentally Appropriate Practice:

http://www.naeyc.org/DAP

The encouraging classroom for boys will also empower girls. It will open areas of interest that may not otherwise be explored by all the children in your classroom.

I don’t want to label him but I am at my whit’s end.

2. Organize the daily routine into long unbroken periods of play in centers.

Read page 34 and 35 in the article: Rethinking Environments and Activities:

https://drjuliejg.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2-build-enc-env-boys.pdf

The fitness center will help you overcome your teaching challenges by:

Creating a permanent physical play area in your classroom that is available for Robby to choose to play in throughout the day;
Replacing Robby’s unsafe physical play with engaged physical play that will reduce conflict with other children

We also suggest you read this short article, The importance of physical environment in child care, that will help aspects of your teaching challenges:

Well designed physical areas allow children to make strong relationships by developing a sense of security and by safely exploring spaces;
Make sure the physical area, the equipment used and the supervision levels are safe.

http://www.troyrecord.com/article/TR/20110224/NEWS/302249961

Robby is already reading at a 1^st grade level.

To support Robby’s safe play and reading abilities, we suggest you:

Ensure a wide range of books are made available to him in the book area that will reduce his overly physical movement and extend his concentration;
Ask your local public librarians to help you find books that reflect Robby’s interests and support his current reading level;

This website has good suggestions for first-grade level reading books that may interest Robby:

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/book-lists/favorite-books-for-first-graders/

We appreciate your thoughtfulness about not labeling Robby and also your awareness of the times he is calm. We wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Heather, Lorraine and Tricia

Alicia’s Letter

Alicia writes, “I’m just as at loss. I feel the overwhelming need to educate these students to the best of my ability, but I need some advice from somebody who has more experience than I.”

Professor,

I know that I have never had a class with you aside from student teaching seminar but I feel as if you would be able to help me with a few things.

I am a brand new preschool teacher and the students are all special needs, some students have IEP goals that are completely unrealistic for the child at this point in time. For instance, I have a little guy, called Enrique, who may not be able to hear. Enrique’s therapists, his mother and I are all in consensus, that he may be deaf. (There is a lack of medical care due to family transportation issue.) Unfortunately, some of his IEP goals state that he should be able to follow through with verbal commands.

The reason that I’m writing you is because I’m just as at loss. I feel the overwhelming need to educate these students to the best of my ability, but I need some advice from somebody who has more experience than I.

I have been having some struggles with my aides. They seem to do things that are against my personal philosophies, even after directly speaking to them about it. When I go on lunch for a half an hour, I come back into the classroom, and my aides have videos playing, with a container of jelly beans. She gives candy to the children “who are sitting nicely.”

Thank you so much for taking your time to read this. Thank you so much for getting back to me!

Alicia

Alicia’s Full Letter

Our Response

Dear Alicia,

Thank you for your letter. We appreciate the challenges you face in your classroom and hope we can help you to improve them.

The scope of the teaching challenges tells us that:

You are teaching young children in a special needs setting who have diverse learning needs;
Some children have challenging behavior and others have intellectual. emotional and physical needs;
This is the first time some children have been in an early years setting. A lack of background information about each child prevents educators from being able to fully meet their individual learning and developmental needs;
Some tension with the classroom aides suggest educators are not collaborating in a team.

We need to plan the best way for you to respond to each of these teaching challenges so that your teaching and each child’s learning and care experiences are improved as quickly as possible.

We are suggesting that you introduce a number of strategies into your classroom that will help both children and educators.

This website provides information to get you started with meeting the needs of the children in your classroom:

Students with Special Needs in the Preschool Classroom

Pat Satterfield pat@center4ATexcellence.com

http://www.center4atexcellence.com/documents/studentswithspecialneedsinthepreschoolclassroom1.pdf

After reading and following the points from the power point Center4Excellence Students with Special Needs we suggest you:

1. Build a team of educators consisting of the director, the teachers and classroom aides that has a designated time to meet for 20 minutes at the end of each day.

A daily team meeting will give all educators an opportunity to work together, learn how to improve their teaching and agree with decisions about how to introduce changes into the classroom. This will bring consistent teaching practices into the classroom that will help each child and each educator.

I have been having some struggles with my aides. They seem to do things that are against my personal philosophies, even after directly speaking to them about it.

Collaborating with classroom assistants: making it work for you:

http://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/winter12_assistants.pdf

2. Organize the classroom in ways that enable each child to fully engage in their play as soon as they arrive each session.

Children Playing Improved classroom organization will help each child become more independent by finding the toys and using the materials they want to play with. When children are fully engaged in their play, their behavior will improve which will give educators more time to support them.

The Power of Purposeful Preschool Environment:

http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2014/the-power-of-purposeful-environments

3. Create a flexible daily routine that consists mainly of long periods of free-play with as few transitions as possible.

A flexible daily routine with few transitions will give each child plenty of time to explore and learn in ways that are appropriate to them. Educators will also have regular opportunities during the day to learn about and support each child’s learning and development.

Planning Transitions to Prevent Challenging Behavior:

http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200805/pdf/BTJ_Hemmeter_Transitions.pdf

4. Encourage educators to interact with children during their play.

Beneficial interaction between educators and children will ensure each child’s socialization and engagement are fully supported during play. Children’s behavior will then improve and stress levels in the classroom will be reduced.

When I go on lunch for a half an hour, I come back into the classroom, and my aides have videos playing, with a container of jelly beans. She gives candy to the children who are sitting nicely.

Building Positive Teacher-Child Relationships:

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/briefs/wwb12.pdf

5. Introduce a system of child observation into the classroom that enables educators to record and understand each child’s special learning and developmental needs.

Recording child observations will enable educators to share and understand each child’s behavior and needs. The team can then accurately assess each child’s progress and plan activities the classroom to support each child’s next steps in learning and that reinforce IEP requirements.

Beyond Outcomes: How Ongoing Assessment Supports Children’s Learning and Leads to Meaningful Curriculum:

http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/YC_Beyond_Outcomes_Dodge_0.pdf

We hope these recommendations will help you and your team bring about real improvements in your classroom. We hope that the challenges you face are reduced and you are then able to support the needs of children effectively.

Sincerely,

Heather, Lorraine and Tricia

Zoe’s Letter-High Energy Boy

Zoe’s Letter

Our Response

Alicia’s Letter – Overwhelmed and at a Loss

Alicia’s Letter

Our Response