Another great
behavior intervention is structured recess.
I call this a “recess
spinner”. The idea was actually born
from a discussion I had with my principal my first year teaching. I had a very challenging student (he went to
a Self-Contained Behavior Unit for second grade). While he did okay in class, he was out of
control at recess. The other teachers
were so frustrated with him, and frankly, the other kids were totally sick of
his naughty behaviors. And of all of the
children I have ever met, this kid really needed
recess… so just taking away recess was not really a viable option. After
identifying the problem (he needed structure in his play, while still allowing
him some freedom), we came up with an idea.
I needed something that would allow him to go complete a task, but then
check back with the on-duty teacher frequently.
Thus, the “Recess Spinner” was born!
This is the front…
the spinner is just a paperclip stuck in the middle.
Here’s how it
works:
The child comes up
to the teacher on duty, spins the spinner (which is just a paper clip), and
then the teacher gives them a “mission” to complete. The child then goes and does their “mission”
as quickly as possible and comes back, giving the teacher a high-five and
saying “Mission accomplished!” or “Mission complete!” Then they spin again!
One side of the
spinner are four categories:
·
Hop around
·
Run to
·
Slide down
·
Teacher’s
choice
Once the category
is selected, the teacher gives a number and location to go with it (i.e. Hop
around the basketball hoop four times).
The backside gives
ideas for variations for each of those four choices.
·
Hop around
o Four Square board
o Playground equipment
o Three trees
Or
you can change the verb
o Skip
o Tightrope walk
o Gallop
o Spin
o Dance
o Lunge
o Crab crawl
o Sideways
o Backwards
·
Run to
o Fence
o Trees
o Tetherball court
o Basketball court
o Wall
You
can also change to “run around” instead of “run to”.
·
Slide down
o Change how many times
o Change how to get to the slide (up the stairs,
up the ladder, across the bridge, etc.)
·
Teacher’s choice
o Monkey bars
o Spin again
o Sit down and count to 20
(Really anything you can think of)
The first student
that I used this with, we had to keep him away from highly populated areas (so
if there were lots of kids on the slide, we would make his “Mission” go away
from the group to some place less populated).
I can guarantee
that you will have a group of kids that want to play. Why? Because many children
really do not know how to create their own activities for their 15 minutes of
free play. They need the structure just
as much as the challenging student. I
always encourage other kids to join in—it’s great, structured, social
interaction and it allows your most challenging student some positive peer
attention. (Let’s say the target student’s name is Johnny. The spinner is Johnny’s. He is responsible for spinning it, but he is
welcome to invite other friends to spin the spinner. Well, if you are a child playing along with
Johnny, you are likely to be very nice to him so that he will ask you to take a
turn.)
You must have
buy-in from all of the teachers that will be out with the student. They need to not only be willing to follow
through with it, but have a positive attitude about it. J
Remember, recess is supposed to be fun! The idea is to provide the student will
controlled freedom- and an opportunity
to get out some of their wiggles!
It really is the
most-effective intervention I have ever seen for recess. It provides structure, while still allowing
the child to feel independent.
No comments:
Post a Comment