One of the hardest parts of our jobs can be managing and reducing behaviors during recess. And it’s something that a lot of you will often reach out to me and ask about. So in this blog post I’m going to be sharing some of my best tips to help recess be a more relaxed and positive time of your day, and try to reduce challenging behaviors.
Use Your Staff
It’s great having staff outside with your students – but are they being used effectively? Or are they standing around, walking but not paying attention to what’s going on? Maybe they’re using this time to talk? This is one of the most important steps. You need to make sure you are being intentional with your staff, and this can be done in a number of ways;
- Have staff zone plans; members of staff in each area so that everyone can be seen.
- Identify what areas have the most behaviors; maybe you have a slide or a set of swings and your students argue over taking turns. Place a member of staff here to watch over this area.
- Use staff to avoid boredom. A lot of our students may not want to play with their peers – or may not know how to. Encourage staff, in their zones and if safe, to interact with students, involve them and help keep them busy and occupied during recess.
Boredom
This felt like the right place to go next after just discussing boredom. There are a lot of reasons why your students may feel bored when they’re outside for recess;
- Nobody to play with.
- Don’t know how to play.
- Doesn’t like to be outside.
- Unsure how to use the equipment.
- Not sure what they can/can’t do.
This is where it’s important for us to make sure we’re giving our students as many opportunities as possible to avoid them getting bored. If our students are bored, they’re more likely to display challenging behaviors.
- Take games outside for students to play.
- Use social stories to discuss how to play with others, take turns etc.
- Spend time with students helping them understand how to use the different equipment outside.
Space
What is the space like that they have access to? Is it too small for all the classes to be out at the same time? Could you move your recess forward/back 20 minutes so that fewer students are outside? Or is the space too big and you can’t keep track of everyone? This is another benefit of having staff zones set up.
Activities
There are so many fun activities you can have set up for recess that are quick and easy for you to pull out. You can put a staff member in charge of putting these out at the start of recess, and then away at the end – or get your students involved in helping. Some ideas of activities are;
- Jumbo bowling.
- Chalks – tic tac toe, drawing, writing, hangman, drawing around bodies, there are SO many endless opportunities with a piece of chalk.
- Tic tac toe.
- Jumbo jenga.
- Movement prompts on the floor; handprints, footprints etc.
- Ring toss.
- Balls; football, tennis etc.
- Bean bag toss.
- Bubbles.
- Water balloons.
- Beach ball.
- Parachute.
- Human ring toss; using inflatable rubber rings (like you use for swimming.)
- Make your own giant dominoes.
- Skipping ropes.
And those are just some quick ideas that I’ve been able to come up with off the top of my head for you to try out with your students. That’s without the equipment that you may already have in your outdoor area!
I hope you found this blog post about managing and reducing behaviors during recess helpful. If so, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues on social media.
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