Activities to Help Children Focus

Courtesy of Marya L. McDonald

I have found several activities helpful to help children focus - I often give the children play dough during story time which 1) keeps their hands busy, 2) keeps the child who has attention difficulty (often running across class at random moments) in his seat and actively engaged, 3) when prefaced with "make something from the story or the theme we have just discussed", their learning increases and the teacher can more readily assess what the children understood and how well the story was told.

After discussing the theme with the children, I have asked the children to draw one of their own personal examples of, say, a stronghold (castle), safe and secure (kitten in a drawer) , etc. (lesson 14).  In my classroom it has been done on a large marker board; however I am sure the activity would work well on paper also. This reinforces their learning of the words and concepts and can be a very personal time for the children to share something with the class. This is especially exciting for those children who are somewhat advanced in their drawing and coloring skills and are already adding elaborately to the coloring sheet at the end of class.

If the resources are available for a CD and CDplayer of the songs for the lessons, let it play during the coloring time - some positive outcomes that I have noticed are 1) children singing as they color, 2) children learning the songs more quickly, 3) a tendency for the children to sit longer and work more diligently.

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