My idea that I use all
during primary is a red stop sign I made and laminated and glued to a popcicle
stick. All I have to do is hold it up and watch the children tell
one another to fold their arms and be quiet and look up front. I
usually count in my mind and when everyone is quiet I tell them how long
it took. They love to try and beat their record. (Hey it works). |
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Children will do anything to be noticed.
Usually the kids who are always acting out and always irreverant are only
begging for attention. And we usually give it to them, only in a
negitive way. We do this by asking them to be quiet and reminding
them this is Heavenly Father's house. I have found that by changing
who I give attention to, changes the spirit off our primary from negitive
to positive. Instead of asking the noisy children to behave, I point
out the children who are already acting the way they should. I tell
Josh thanks for sitting with his arms folded because Kim, who is sitting next to him is bugging his sister.
(and Kim fixes himself without me reminding him...then I recognized his
good behavior) I tell another child I appreciate the way she is singing
with the music leader because the child next to her is talking instead
of singing. (usually the other child wants this attention and starts
to sing...then give the attention to this child too) This allows
me to give attention to the children who are doing well and give some positive
encouragement to the children who need reminded. Our primary children
benifit from the positive feedback they get. |
When I was chorister, I had a grab bag of strange
items that I would pull out to get the attention of the children.
It would be something I could wear: sunglasses, headbands and bows, hats,
bibs, etc. When I put something like that on, it was amazing how
quickly I could get every single eye on me! |
Another thing a chorister could do is have something
to put on their hands when they direct music. I found this out when
we were painting hands for Mother's Day cards for Sharing Time, and I had
to get the attention of a bunch of wound-up kids. I left the paint
on the palms of my hands, and started leading the music. I told the
children to raise their hands when they saw what was different about me.
This worked well, and I thought having crazy colored gloves or using a
kitchen utensil as a baton would work even better! |
Have them follow all kinds of Simon Says type
instructions (put your hands on your hips, on your toes, wave them in the
air, etc.) and then have them put hands in the air, grab their elbows,
pull their elbows down in front, and voila! their arms are folded. |
I have used in the past the cub scout sign--two
fingers of your right hand extended in the air. All cub scouts know
that this signal means come to attention. They take pride in being
the first to respond by raising their own signal because they know what
to do. Some scout manuals say the two fingers represent the ears
of a wolf (one of the Cub Scout ranks) ready to listen. Now if my
husband and I could agree on whether the fingers are supposed to be together
or apart, like the peace symbol. My Cub Scout books show them apart.
Does anyone know this? |
Say, "If you can hear me, put your finger on
your nose." Kids look around and wonder why their friend has a finger
on his nose. |
Let the children know you are looking for helpers
that are reverent. If you consistently select the children trying
to be quiet and with their arms folded, you'll soon be pleasantly suprised
at how quickly the room can become quiet! |
I love to do the little song "Roll your hands"--a
cappella, of course. We do it quickly first and say "fold them up
like me, like me, and fold them up like me" quite fast. Then we do
the slow verse, ending once again quickly and quietly on "fold them up". |
Any finger plays. I like to do "Here's
the church, here's the steeple" and then use your hands in the church position
to sing "The Chapel Doors" with the steeple part of the church against
your lips. |
A picture of reverence or any new picture will
grab their attention. Make sure it's large enough for them to see. |
Call the children by name. If you don't
know their names, they don't feel like they have to respond. |
Evaluate why you don't have their attention.
A few weeks ago, our Pres. was conducting a sharing time and having problems
with attention. It was a coloring activity and she realized that
with the children kneeling to color on their chairs, it was harder for
them to turn and look at her to give attention. She solved that problem
by finishing the Sharing Time standing at the back of the room. |
Someone suggested once to flick the lights of
the room off and on. |
| Have a different counselor call them to attention. Sometimes hearing the same voice all the time makes it easier to not listen. |
| Above all, be prepared. If the kids are used to giving you their full attention, because you consistently have something that merits their attention, the attention comes naturally. |
What if you picked reverent children one by
one to silently write their names on the board? I think everyone
would sober up really quickly to have the chance to write her/his name
on a board in front of everyone. We all love our names! ( And, if
you didn't know their names you would be able to refresh your memory.)
Just make sure you have a place for them that is entitled "I am reverent"
or something like that, because in school the teachers do it opposite and
write the names of rowdy children on the board as a warning. Then
at the end of primary, the children who wrote their names could be the
first to be dismissed. |
| Another idea that I used when I taught this age is to put all their names on the chalkboard with scriptures by them for the lesson. When they see their name up on the board, they suddenly feel the need to be looking up that scripture! |
| Something else I did was make it clear that we had the lesson first and then if we got finished they could have their time to talk! Of course, we never did finish the lesson, because they always had so many questions! But, it did settle them down. |
| Be sure to use the attention getter at the beginning of the manual putting it into a bag for your class or something like that every week. I'm thinking that as you pick up the same bag each week that could be a signal that you will begin to share the fun attention getter. |