A six year old is always on the move. Their attention span in minimal. They are inquisitive by nature. And they cannot sit still. A classic case of ants in their pants.
How do you tackle this issue? There are many things to do to get students moving in the classroom and get their wiggles out, but sometimes students just need to sit still and stand in one place for more than a few seconds at a time. When my school was remodeled two years ago, our classroom carpets all ended up in the dumpster. Without a specific carpet spot that my old carpet provided, many of my students were not capable of giving themselves and one another adequate space. Enter my temporary solutions:
Solution One:
How do you tackle this issue? There are many things to do to get students moving in the classroom and get their wiggles out, but sometimes students just need to sit still and stand in one place for more than a few seconds at a time. When my school was remodeled two years ago, our classroom carpets all ended up in the dumpster. Without a specific carpet spot that my old carpet provided, many of my students were not capable of giving themselves and one another adequate space. Enter my temporary solutions:
Solution One:
Buy new carpets and mark individual spots with duck tape.
Pros: Spots could not be moved by students.
Cons: Students outgrew the space provided for them.
Solution Two:
Pros: Spots could not be moved by students.
Cons: Students outgrew the space provided for them.
Solution Two:
Lakeshore Learning's ABC Activity Mats used as carpet spots.
Pros: Each student could receive a letter. Spots could be moved to allow for
flexibility in the whole group instruction area.
Cons: Spots had to be attached with Velcro, but could easily be removed by
students. The spots have begun to curl along the edges. If students have indoor
recess and I’m not in the room, they sometimes flip over the spots and use them to scoot themselves around the room or spin around.
My search was not over and my carpet area was looking shabby (see above). Through some searching on Google, I heard about SitSpots. After tweeting out a question looking for more information about this resource and other teachers’ opinions, another user directed me to the blog, “A Teeny Tiny Teacher.” This blogger recently wrote a post about this product.
Kristin sang the praises of SitSpots and I couldn't help but get excited. I read about how she used them and saw pictures of how she set them up in her classroom. I was mostly excited about her students’ responses to the SitSpots. The most exciting thing… her students have not even tried to pull them up. You mean they won’t be using them to launch themselves across the room during indoor recess?! I noticed that Kristin mentioned learning about this product during a convention that she had attended. I thought that must mean that other teachers are using and possibly blogging about this product too. So, I searched more and on the SitSpots site, I found links to other blog posts about this product.
Needless to say, I have a trial SitSpot currently being shipped to me. Before I invest in another “solution,” I needed some proof and was able to find it in this blog post. Twitter came to my rescue to direct me to this blog post. I guess Twitter can’t be that bad! The best thing about all of this… the promotional code given at the end of the blog post! I’ll take 25% off any day!
Image Source:
Roman TM (2003, October 27). Ants in my pants [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/romantm/446747410/
Pros: Each student could receive a letter. Spots could be moved to allow for
flexibility in the whole group instruction area.
Cons: Spots had to be attached with Velcro, but could easily be removed by
students. The spots have begun to curl along the edges. If students have indoor
recess and I’m not in the room, they sometimes flip over the spots and use them to scoot themselves around the room or spin around.
My search was not over and my carpet area was looking shabby (see above). Through some searching on Google, I heard about SitSpots. After tweeting out a question looking for more information about this resource and other teachers’ opinions, another user directed me to the blog, “A Teeny Tiny Teacher.” This blogger recently wrote a post about this product.
Kristin sang the praises of SitSpots and I couldn't help but get excited. I read about how she used them and saw pictures of how she set them up in her classroom. I was mostly excited about her students’ responses to the SitSpots. The most exciting thing… her students have not even tried to pull them up. You mean they won’t be using them to launch themselves across the room during indoor recess?! I noticed that Kristin mentioned learning about this product during a convention that she had attended. I thought that must mean that other teachers are using and possibly blogging about this product too. So, I searched more and on the SitSpots site, I found links to other blog posts about this product.
Needless to say, I have a trial SitSpot currently being shipped to me. Before I invest in another “solution,” I needed some proof and was able to find it in this blog post. Twitter came to my rescue to direct me to this blog post. I guess Twitter can’t be that bad! The best thing about all of this… the promotional code given at the end of the blog post! I’ll take 25% off any day!
Image Source:
Roman TM (2003, October 27). Ants in my pants [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/romantm/446747410/