WIth some young and rather rambunctious students, I’m constantly trying to find ways to help them calm down and focus.  Last week, one student came in to lessons very hyper and silly.  After a few minutes of ignoring his silliness and trying to just teach the lesson, I realized the silliness was going to have to be addressed. 

Not wanting to make him feel like he was being chastised, I said, “Ok.  We have to get rid of the sillies.  Where are they?”  He looked around rather confused.  “Are they in your hands?”  He began to get into the game and told me that’s exactly where they were.  “Ok.  Put them on your head.”  He placed “the sillies” on his head.  “But we don’t want the sillies to stay on your head, do we?  Hmmm…put them under the bench.”  He giggled and did so.  “Ok.  But if they stay under the bench, we might have problems.  Let’s see….let’s throw them out the door!”  He made a big show of winding up and threw his “sillies” out the door.  ”Ok.  Now they are outside my house and they can’t bother us!”

Amazingly, it worked!  He didn’t act overly silly for the rest of the lesson.  I still had to pull him back into focus a few times, but the silliness was gone!