Last updated on October 27th, 2023 at 03:56 pm
Some days, it may feel like you’ve tried everything up your sleeve to calm a class of little ones.
You scan the room in desperation, feeling mere seconds away from completely losing this class of Kindergartners…until you see it. Your eyes land on an unexpected tool, an aid shining from the uncertain depths.
What is this Excalibur-like classroom management tool, readers ask?
A stuffed animal.
A dose of magic for our K-2 scholars
This special strategy works for a certain demographic, namely the littler ones. The ones with big imaginations, who don’t find it all that unusual if a teacher is puppeteering a toy cat.
I’ve utilized this tactic with Pre-K and Kindergarten classes. The method works swimmingly with first grade. You can probably get away with using it with second graders, too, especially if they’re not “too cool” for this kind of thing.
Students from ages 4-8 love to play pretend and love to play, period. And they’re shut in classrooms all day. Their teacher, in her absence, has likely left piles of worksheets for them to plod through. (Have you written sub plans, especially for younger grades? It’s quite the task!)
It’s no one’s particular fault that the situation becomes unideal, but now the substitute is left grappling with following the uninspired lesson plans and trying to keep the general peace among a growingly restless bunch.
“Okay, class, I need you to sit on your bottoms, please. And keep your hands to yourself. And stop taking off your shoe and dumping its contents onto the carpet…”
Often these groups have a pretty short bandwidth for sit-and-listen-to-the-teacher time. Even if the sub plans indicate you should be prattling on for 30 minutes. You will need strong reinforcements to get the class sitting appropriately, looking and listening for a length of time.
How to use the stuffed animal strategy
This strategy wholly depends on the implementer acting silly. So if you’re decidedly anti-silly, you may want to find other methods.
To accomplish the strategy, you must bring the stuffed animal to life, so to speak. It can be any stuffed animal. I’ve had success with a pigeon, a cat, a dog, an elephant and a pig. The creature can be stuffed with wool, polyester filling or beans. It can wear clothing items or a goofy grin or beady eyes or a bushy tail.
The important factor is the life you put into it.
Once the animal has been chosen, you are now its puppeteer. But you can make the creature dance and wiggle and clap like it has a life of its own.
I love doing this with first graders, for instance. That seems to be precisely the age that they feel “too old and mature” for this kind of thing, but also they sort of aren’t sure if the animal is really coming to life.
Let’s say you have a length of time in which you need to go over worksheet answers. You introduce your friend. You tell the students he enjoys showing off his dance moves. And he also enjoys when everyone is seated, listening and following directions.
Move the limbs of this exciting stuffed animal mascot to cheer or dance when directions are followed or correct answers submitted. Use any variety of celebratory moves. That stuffed pigeon can do the chicken dance, just maybe her version dubbed the Pigeon Dance. She can do the Macarena. She can clap, cheer, tumble, and perform all sorts of gravity-defying back flips.
What would normally be a dull exercise becomes a thrilling experience. Even those least interested will catch, and likely, appreciate the novelty.
Different uses for the stuffed animal strategy
I’ve had success using this positive behavior reinforcer in the following activities:
- Whole-group lessons, going over answers on a worksheet
- Whole-group read alouds
- Morning meetings, class meetings
- Circling the room during independent work time
- Modeling or demonstrating a concept in a lesson
- Lining up and walking to another destination
- Cleaning up after lunchtime
- Cleaning up/packing up at the end of the day
One could probably find numerous other ways to fit this strategy in, but those are what have worked for me.
To keep the tactic novel, and therefore effective, I use the stuffed animal only during a few strategic parts of the day. Puppeteering a rambunctious cheerleading mascot all day is a recipe for: 1. Boredom on their part 2. Exhaustion on my part.
I might, for example, introduce this fuzzy friend during math worksheet time and have him accompany us on the way to and from lunch if the class struggles with their line. Then I’ll put the stuffed animal away for a while, but have him pop back in at the end of the day to give some extra doses of fun and motivation to the clean-up process.
It’s a great way to shake things up, to inject some fun into a teacher’s day away.
Getting creative with classroom management
This unconventional, silly mascot tactic is one of many I consider when in the classroom. In addition to using my best practices while subbing, sometimes adding in some extra flair is the push I feel we all need to get through the school day and all its demands.
Sometimes I have students earn a whole-class incentive like extra recess, letter by letter. Sometimes we take a short break to play games and get some wiggles out before continuing with academic work. And sometimes I make a little animal cheerlead and motivate a group of K-2 students.
I’m honestly not sure who has more fun using this method– me, or the kids.
