Children Running From One End Of The Setting To Another

[AnonyMouse_705]

Hi

 

We have many children who run from one end of the setting to another. Back in the Autumn we changed the layout to put a bit of a 'S' into the layout in the hope of obstructing the runway. Whilst giving us many other benefits, it doesn't seem to have stopped the problem.

 

We have the home corner and creative art area at one end and the quiet area with books and puzzles at the other, with mark making and maths in the middle.

 

We are in the process of making the book area more obvious and calming with a canopy and fairy lights etc.

 

No amount of explaining that children could bang their heads or bump into each other works, the next minute children are running again.

 

I tend to say 'noisy play outside, quiet play inside' or 'walking inside and running outside' - but to no effect.

 

Many of the children are 'transporters' and they are heavily into role play involving wolves or armies, chasing and catching games.

 

We can partition the room with a sliding partition and do for so called quiet time after lunch. There is a sign on the handle saying 'Quite - shsh).

 

It starts more or less straightaway when children come in as there is free play for the first half of the morning, with free flow to the outside once parents have gone as we use the same entrance door.

 

When we say OK noisy play outside, they don't want to go outside though they love it when they do and don't want to come in again for snack at 10.30.

 

On the plus side there is an awful lot of interaction and communication going on.

 

One alternative might be to move the mark making area down to the quiet area, leaving maths and construciton in the middle.

 

Are we missing something? Hoping you can throw some light on the problem......

[AnonyMouse_3139]

I read that if you have an exercise session first it helps to focus the childrens minds on what they would like to do afterwards. Something like sticky kids would do, they can join in as they arrive. Then you could direct them to the activities that are out.

You've noted that they are communicating and interacting, could you intervene with suggestions or questions? Make them think about what they are doing.

[Guest]

First of all Deb, Can i just say THANK YOU for this post!!!!!! and thank god it's not just our setting that this happends to, i was begining to get a complex We constantly try and ask (tell) the children not to run ect.... we take them out just like you to give them loads of space to run and play but they come in and do it again. We too moved the lay out and it has helped, and we follow their interest's ect.. but when they just want to play add this is hard! What we have done was made a space down the end of our hall, i say thats where their running space is, and just keep telling them that, when my EY adviser came in last week she said i could re direct them to something else for a little while and say " come on now Bob lets go and play with the cars ect...." it was nice to be told this and i have done it ever since, fingers crossed it keeps working! i know this post is not full of suggestions for you but i was so pleased to read that we are not alone!!!!!! i had to reply.

[AnonyMouse_705]

Thank you both for your replies.

 

We too try to suggest other activities.

 

We too go outside and then when we come back in, off they go again often.

 

Part of me loves the fact that they are so engaged in their play, and that they are perhaps exploring their fears, say in wolves, in a safe environment.

 

I think perhaps I really need to undertake a narrative observation and try to understand exactly what is going on.

 

We have a set of older children and a set of younger children.

[AnonyMouse_8466]

I read that if you have an exercise session first it helps to focus the childrens minds on what they would like to do afterwards.

I did a child study for my degree and through my observations I realised that the child I was studying needed to be physically active first thing in the morning before he could settle himself. His mum was really keen for him to write and draw but he was just not interested. Instead he's be engaging in really imaginative role play and charging round the place - with constant reminders from staff that we only run outside etc, which was really inhibiting and upsetting for him. He'd just be settling down and was ready to engage in a table top game or something when we'd be ready to go outside to play, and I realised the day was exactly the wrong way round for him.

 

So I changed the routine and we now go outside first, and then come back inside for a more restrained free play after snacktime. It seems to work for us, and for this little boy in particular it made a world of difference.

 

We too have the problem of children wanting to run around indoors (especially now that we have fewer children and there is more space available) but generally it is much easier to control than before.

 

Sorry - went a bit off tangent there, but it may be that looking at your routines might provide some solutions to your problem.

 

Maz

[Guest]

When we can find the CD (!!!) we do Activate in the morning and at the beginning of the afternoon.

It is an exercise programme by Val Sabin.

 

Very simple and quick and it gradually builds over the weeks

[Guest]

I have three thoughts, not sure if they will help, apologies if you're already doing these things!:

 

- Firstly, is there something 'fresh' there each day that really engages them, something that doesn't involve running around. For instance, this morning I put a box on the table, and inside there were plates, napkins, proper teapot, etc. all wrapped up. On the box was a note saying 'thank you for fixing and cleaning my car, please unwrap this. Within minutes of reading the note, loads of kids were engrossed in unpacking it and setting it out.

 

- Secondly, could you put a mat with toys on it in the middle of the space so that you kind of break up the open area.

 

- Would you consider some kind of sanction if children fail to stop running, and a couple of warnings? For instance, being asked to sit in a time out zone for a couple of minutes? I know this is perhaps against what early years staff like to do, but these children are causing a danger for everyone and need to understand that there are consequences.

 

Surely sometimes you should be allowed just to tell children how they must behave if it impacts on everyone else?

[AnonyMouse_64]

Like some of the others we had a large hall with one end of the room designated as a physical activity area. If children were running around the setting we would direct them here where they could be active and 'let off steam' without being constantly nagged! Being in such a big hall though made it difficult at times, because there was plenty of room between the activities and little in the way of screens to break up the space. Mind you, we had no outdoor area to direct them to either.

 

The setting I am currently at is much smaller and all the activities are extremely crowded. There really isn't room to run at all, so it tends not to happen so much. The fact that your children are able to run around suggests you have 'space' - the only way to prevent it is to try to break this up a bit more with screens of some sort which take away any 'long runs' of space where a child can pick up speed!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

we had a long run which caused issues and added a low level screen /wall to div ide areas which caused an obsyacle to move around and stopped the flow...

 

w did have a year where we simple could not prevent it, constant reminders changing layout to block the run, change of activities, we all tried everything until e eventually gave in, arranged the setting so there was a run area.... this caused all the others to be in a smaller area where running was difficult... when they ran we directed them to the area...

 

I do remember one difficult day we decided to go with it, set up a run area and had a 'directed' game of stop and start using coloured cards they had to look for, the run was much longer than the stop! they eventually all became so worn out they gave up and went to play... or we also had a idea that not letting them stop would help.. so we let them run and then when they tried to stop encouraged them up to continue to run, and continued this for what to us felt like forever, some refused to give in but eventually they all gave up and we ended up with very quiet session... this lasted about 3 sessions whenre the fun of giving them permission to run actually wore off... it was the fact we said do it that caused them to stop!

 

all of which may not be of any help but it did help us and our sanity at the time...

 

Inge

[AnonyMouse_705]

Many thanks for all your replies, I felt sure others would have experienced this too! Your perspectives have helped us to consider our practice and provision, again.

 

We are very lucky and have our own large portacabin with free flow to the outside. Yes, I think we may have too much space for children to move about in. As a staff team we are considering how we can alter the internal layout a little more. I am wondering if I can involve the children in this discussion too, perhaps next time they start running about would be a good time to have a little chat, acknowleging their need to run around but highlighting the dangers to them and others and asking them if they can suggest a solution rather than constantly saying 'we walk inside, and run outside'.

 

I think we also need to provide a fresh activity straightaway that will appeal to them. We have spaghetti in water waiting for them tomorrow morning.

 

Thanks again for your support and suggestions.

[Guest]

Great post and some really useful information/ideas. We also have this problem and are constantly (it seems) asking certain children to 'please walk'. will definately use some of these ideas.

 

thank you everyone!

 

Rachel

[Guest]

This thread was great timing as we too have been contending with this problem recently. Had tried blocking runways, praising good walking, consistently upholding the no running rule.

 

Today we tried some of the ideas here.

 

We are in a large hall and apportioned a far greater 'runnning' area. We rearranged some other areas slightly so as to make the walkways more 'meandering'. We started the session with a good old disco dance to ABBA and lo and behold what a calmer atmosphere after that. The children also then responded well to being redirected to the dedicated 'running area' when that urge to run took them!

[Guest]

This thread was great timing as we too have been contending with this problem recently. Had tried blocking runways, praising good walking, consistently upholding the no running rule.

 

Today we tried some of the ideas here.

 

We are in a large hall and apportioned a far greater 'runnning' area. We rearranged some other areas slightly so as to make the walkways more 'meandering'. We started the session with a good old disco dance to ABBA and lo and behold what a calmer atmosphere after that. The children also then responded well to being redirected to the dedicated 'running area' when that urge to run took them!

[AnonyMouse_705]

Glad you have had success too Gwennie. We too have had success with having some fresh ideas available at the start of the session such as spagetti in water. Do try cooked cous cous if you haven't, the children have spent ages playing with it, spooning it into the small pots with spoons etc. It has a soft rubbery texture which sounds a bit offputting but it's rather nice, especially when still warm. We are going to mix some colours next using food colouring. We plan to make some changes to the layout during half term.

[Guest]

Ooh - love that idea of cooked cous cous - think the children would have to fight me for a turn!