Teachers - any suggestions for this behaviour which is wearing me down?

[cathcat]

Infant class, 3 boys who will not stop shouting out and being silly. It is totally affecting the pace of my lessons when we are all together. Silly noises, faces, trying to make each other laugh, it is relentless. I am suspecting one of not being able to help it but nothing diagnosed as yet.

It is turning me into a nagging negative teacher, not nice for the rest of the class. Any suggestions? TIA

cathcat, sounds very frustrating. What have you tried so far? I assume you have them seperated for whole class teaching and for individual work?
What are their interests? Do you have a reward/consequence system in class?
The teaching ideas website found "here www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/management/contents.htm" has some tried and tested different strategies to try in class

Do you have seperate tables ?
Maybe one on each table and do a table reward system. My ds really liked this in y1.
Get them being competitive against each other ?

competition
bribery positive reinforcement

I would do a circle time on how we are

expected to behave on the carpet, ask for

the childrens suggestions on how we should

sit should we shout out ect.

Praise the ones who are doing the right thing, fantastic X you have your hand up ready to answer my question.

I often say lets see smart sitting.
Praising the ones who are sitting the best.

Sit them next to a child who sits nicely.

Explain to the tree what is expected and how this calling out makes you sad and cross.

The biggest one is ignore ignore ignore.

I hope that helps

Catch them being good and praise them to the heavens for it. I buy stuff like these bookmarks to collect stickers on here. The book 'Getting the buggers to behave' is good for tips on setting boundaries with your class.

Also with the one that you think can't help it, make sure that you make the behaviour that you want from him is explicitly clear. Tell them all the time how you want them to sit on the carpet, how you want them to move around class etc. It won't do the others any harm either.

Hi cath! They sound a bit of a headache. Have you tried giving them special 'carpet places' so they can't drift together? Sit your TA on the carpet with the one you think can't help it (if you are lucky enough to have one) to try and keep him engaged with what you are talking about.
Super positive attitude to those who are behaving - especially if it's the child sitting next to one of the three and loads of attention for the right things. (I used to have a poster on my wall entitled 'Catch them being good' with tips on spotting things to praise)

Good luck with them. How are you otherwise? I miss our old thread sometimes although it has started to get easier...still knocks me back from time to time. Shall we pop back in there to catch up rather than me hijacking this one??