Kindy Routine - Afternoon Lose Focus

[Sharon82]

i am seeking some suggestions for our kindy room. I have 24 children with myself and a new assistant. My troubles are just in the afternoon. We have afternoon tea, put sunscreen on, have a short mat session then go outside. From the time they sit down to have afternoon tea they are just all over the place. I loose them and have trouble getting their attention again/ regrouping, getting them to focus. Has anyone got some ideas, activities, routine ideas for this transition?

[Lorina]

Hi Sharon,

I've been meaning to get to your question but I've been away over the weekend! Now I'm back and hopefully can give you a few suggestions.

I think the main problem is having afternoon tea followed by mat time. By this stage especially towards the end of the day most children just want to play and wait for mum and dad to pick them up (well at least for my group it is)...LOL...

How about having mat time before afternoon tea? You could try and swap it around and see if it works. I mean before you have afternoon tea, have mat time, sunscreen then afternoon tea. When they finish afternoon tea they transition to outside play.

Another idea you can try and incorporate into the afternoon is a music and movement session. Especially if the children are having trouble being attentive (this usually works well with my toddlers). So, if you wanted to keep the same routine as now then after afternoon tea, for your mat session you can do music and movement. This will probably get your children to participate in the afternoon a little bit better especially towards the end of the day.

Anyways, there are a couple of ideas I have.

Cheers ,
L.A