Listening Skills!

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I have a lovely reception class this year but they are very noisy on the carpet and during lessons. A chatty bunch you could say! Does anyone have any tips to target this? Anything they can share that works?

 

I just feel I am repeating the same names over and over to stop them chatting

 

Thnaks

 

Aggy x

[AnonyMouse_4562]

When I was in Reception and KS1, I had a 'listening' bear who watched the children doing 'good listening' (and helped me choose who to give stickers to!) and would choose the quietest table to sit with. We also used him for circle time and for going home with the children. It seemed to work. I still have a listening bear now in Nursery which we use for circle-time and story-times. I always tell the children exactly what I'm looking for and display this using photos of the children e.g. sitting still, eyes looking at the teacher/speaker, hands-up etc.

I'm sure others will be along with their ideas soon,

Green hippo x

[Guest]

I'll be watching this post with great interest! Our school is open plan and I know my Reception class are noisy - they are only 4 and 5 and I don't want them to be quiet all the time but a little quieter during activities would be welcome - hoping to pinch any ideas!!!

[AnonyMouse_3307]

Ensuring they get opportunities to join in and be active listeners. talk partners for example in group times or having instruments to play a sound at a specific time in a story to make a sound effect.....

[AnonyMouse_39602]

I work with preschoolers and have found the quieter voice you use the quieter the children are , or I use rythmes such as 123 listening to me , 1,2 then i can listen to you , the children understand that if they listen to me i can listen to them too . i find with many of these ideas you have to chop and change depending on the children and ages etc as i am sure you already know

[Guest]

I have a marble jar for carpet times, they get marbles in it for coming to the carpet quietly and being ready to listen quickly and I find sitting on my chair poised with a marble in the air for them to see has immediate effect. I also put in a marble for if they remember to put hands up to speak. I have taken the odd marble out if they have talked or called out and that has a massive impact as they are desperate for the marble jar to be full. They have chosen their reward from a few options and have chosen a DVD- I manage to engineer it so that they get their reward at the end of a term when we would probably be watching a DVD anyway. We also have a traffic light behaviour system throughout school so if children are talking persistantly when asked not to then their name gets moved and that also has a massive impact. I also have Lola the lion who comes out of her box to join us when it is quiet enough for her and she has a cuddle with one of the children who is sitting ready to learn-if it is noisy she won't. I also keep carpet times to a minimum and active and we have talk partners. The talk partners are chosen randomly on a weekly basis and the children have to sit next to that child all week for carpet times which often means they are not next to their closest friends who they would be tempted to chat to. My last years class were very chatty and really struggled with sitting on the carpet to listen and I ended up giving the whole class carpet spaces boy/girl/boy girl which solved the problem immediately-I then changed their places every half term. I have certain segments of the day where I expect quiet eg when we are doing guided reading but during child initiated times I don't place any restrictions on their noise level but I do have up to 14 children outside at any one time so find it pretty quiet anyway.

Deb