Bloody hell- what do you do when your class are tuned in to another planet?

[EatsBreadWhenStressed]

I have inherited the dreamiest class ever (Y2). There's only 24 of them and I have to say they're generally very quiet. They just don't do anything.

e.g. they really struggle with 'Yellow group, go and get your jackets'. Despite sitting at a table with individual yellow name plates, it took two minutes for one child to wander out.

When they're sitting for carpet time, it's the same- fiddling with shoe laces, rolling up socks, eyes anywhere but on me. They just do. not. listen and the work they're producing is crap as a result.

Short of a cattle prod, any genius ideas? I'm doing the daily mile but it seems to make them worse!

In our school, we do "wake up, shake up" each morning.

Use music from YouTube on the board and associate it with different tasks. So every time they’ve got to put their pencils away play the 30 second music from countdown, every time they have to tidy up use the music from mission impossible, when they have to go and wash their hands ready for lunch play car wash something like that? It’s very effective if you always associate a song with a particular action, they do it on auto pilot 👍

Lots of use of individual names, I know it's more time consuming but it works. And visual reminders up on walls as to which group they're in. And maybe a visual timetable so that they know what's next and aren't using thinking capacity wondering about that. Plus lots and lots of routine, they don't seem to be a class that can cope with change.

they really struggle with 'Yellow group, go and get your jackets'. Despite sitting at a table with individual yellow name plates

Do they know that having a yellow name plate means they are in the yellow group?

I would do something to get their attention and ensure the attention is fully there before issuing an instruction.

Last year when ds was in year 1 his teacher used to clap a short rhythm to get the classes attention, then they had to clap it back. It seemed to work. Another teacher teacher used to say ‘raise your hand if you’re listening’ with her hand in the air. Then listening children copied the action and the daydreamers got the idea that they had missed something. Would strategies like these work maybe?