Grabbing and Keeping their attention

[Steffelz]

Hey everyone, the question I have might be an obvious one, but its not for me for some reason.
Anyway, does anyone have any ideas/tactics on how to catch and hold the attention of groups of different ages of children?
Ive only worked in childcare for a while, after I got my cert 3. Then I went casual/relief when I started my diploma. I might just be paranoid because i had an incident of workplace bullying where I was told that I cant hold the childrens attention and a bunch of other things by some of the workers in the room at one of the centers where I was doing relief work. (I spoke to some other places where I worked and asked them to watch and give me constructive criticism, and they said I was fine). Whatever the case is, I'm now extremely conscious of whether or not I can hold the childrens attention and if I have the ability to "conduct the room" well. I know a lot of it is confidence, but Id still really like to hear about peoples methods.
Thanks guys

[cathiek]

Sorry to hear you got some negative feedback Steffelz. Should anyone else say this to you, ask them for clarification, you have the right to know what can be improved, and perhaps the person there was just having a bad day
Different things work for different age groups. I work with 3/4 year olds in a school based Kindy. If the children are on the mat and seem a bit distracted I use the following
Roly poly roly poly up up up (rolling my arms over each other upwards)
Roly poly roly poly down down down (opposite)
Roly poly roly poly clap clap clap (doing 3 claps when you say the words)
Roly poly roly poly lay them in your lap. (hands in laps)
By the end of this all eyes are on me and hands are in laps.

There is always the follow me technique where you say hands on heads, hands on shoulders or any other body part and lastly hands in laps or on lips.

Sometimes I just start a song, by the end of the first line children are singing with me and others join in very soon after.
OPther times I ring a bell and the children become statues, I praise them of course and use this time to explain that 'in 5 minutes we are packing for lunch' or whatever it is I want them to know.

Remember for some kids sitting for a long time is something they are not developmentally ready for - give them a chance to wiggle if they need it.
Watch others and see what they do, we can learn so much from one another. Be confident in yourself and it will all start to fall into place.
We can all always improve. I find that after lunch my children struggle to sit on the mat anywhere near as long as they need to in the morning so I allow for this and make things short and sweet.
Also, my kids love story books on CD. See if they have any at your centre, you just have to hold the book and the children will settle so they can hear the voice on the cd reading the story.
Good luck
CAthiek

[Steffelz]

Thanks so much,
about the negative feedback, after it happened I asked the directors of 2 of the centers that I work at to keep an eye on me over 2 months and get back to me, when they got back to me, they both said that i had nothing to worry about and for someone who had only recenlty recieved their cert3, I was doing really well. A colleague at another center told me to go and get the policies and procedures and stop them in their tracks.

[Lorina]

What is going on in Childcare centres these days? It is very common to hear about work place bullying... It's ridiculous! I'm sorry Steffelz that you were involved in such an incident. Keep your head held high!

Ok here are some strategies I use to get the children's attention:

- I begin to clap my hands in a rhythm, then the children begin to follow.
- I start doing actions while children are gathered on the mat. The children follow as they settle for group time.
- I begin to sing "everybody do this, do this, do this, everybody do this just like me" along with actions.

When reading stories etc and you know the children are getting restless, ask questions draw attention to the pictures in the book, use different tones of your voice when reading the story etc. If all else fails shut the book and move on to something else.

Hope this gives you a few ideas,

,
L.A