[nobe-l] Keeping Students' Hands Busy During Presentations

[taranabella0 at gmail.com]

Something that we do that involves movement, but doesn’t distract from a video or from reading a story is involving motion for keywords or ideas. For example, when we were studying weather, every time the students heard the word “thunder,” they would stomp their feet. Every time rain was mentioned, they would pat their knees. Whenever a new part of the water cycle was introduced, the students would clap one time. I teach second and third graders, and typically students don’t need sensory items for a five or 10 minute video, but having a few fidget cubes or squishy items with fun textures that you can typically find at the dollar store could be helpful for kids needing extra sensory input. From my experience, clay and Plato can be messy, and I would especially be careful if the area is carpeted. Also, stress balls can easily roll away, so I would look for something that is not round in shape. Best of luck! It sounds like you have a great program planned.   

Tara Abella

> On May 30, 2019, at 8:03 PM, Mikaela Stevens via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Children get wiggly, sighted or blind. My students are sighted. I use stress balls, play dough, doodling or teach them a skill like knitting. Good luck.
> 
> Best regards,
> Mikaela
> 
>> On May 30, 2019, at 5:55 PM, David Sexton via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher gave me some polymer clay to play with during videos.
>> 
>> That really helped me focus on the video.
>> 
>> 
>> David
>> 
>>> On 5/30/2019 4:24 PM, Tina Hansen via NOBE-L wrote:
>>> As you may know, my team and I have been working on a project for this
>>> year's BELL program to mark the anniversary of Apollo 11. The project is
>>> really taking shape.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Our narrative is done, and we have just about everything we need for the
>>> experiments.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> However, the concern I have now was prompted by something that happened
>>> during last year's BELL program. When we made our presentation, the
>>> instructor showed a 45-minute video to the students documenting Eric
>>> Weihenmayer's story. There was no good place to stop it, and the students
>>> were not able to look at our display until it was over.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> During the video, a sighted observer noticed that the students' hands were
>>> engaged in unacceptable behavior. They were sitting for almost 45 minutes.
>>> Also. Since they'd just had lunch, they had a lot of energy. After they were
>>> able to get a look at our props, they had a hard time getting settled again.
>>> This is why this year, we've built time in for them to look at props.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Since we're dealing with younger students this year, we want to try and keep
>>> everything between 5 and 15 minutes.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So we want to find a way to keep their hands occupied while they're
>>> listening to our pre-recorded narrative. If they're hyper from lunch, as
>>> they likely will be, we need to help channel their energy so they can stay
>>> focused.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> To make things interesting, we're playing our narrative in segments. We'll
>>> do an activity, then play some of our narrative, then do another activity.
>>> But during the narrative segments, we want to keep their hands busy so they
>>> won't engage in unacceptable behavior.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I know many educators deal with this whenever they play any pre-recorded
>>> material. I can't be the only one concerned about this. Does anyone on the
>>> list have any suggestions for something that will keep their hands busy
>>> while their minds are focused on our narrative? Thanks.
>>> 
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