. . . and then the moth flew down

All school year the wee folk have been maintaining fairly well on Thursdays, but today the PM class finally cracked. And that's when I realized how long we've been expecting them to sit and listen with only transitions--no activity breaks.

Their Thursday schedule: a writing or reading job, carpet/calendar time, Weekly Readers, library (they're read to, then check-out) and then either computers or a video. Sometimes we have time for a recess at the end,  sometimes.

Today, teacher L wanted us to watch a video after library to give her a chance to enter reading data. I chose one that (sadly) turned out to be appealing to about 75% of my audience. Just off the mark enough to cause some contagious restlessness. And then a moth flew down and caused an uproar. There were the concerned ones, "don't touch the wings! it'll die!", a few were freaked out and began to shriek and then there were the ones who love the chance to make some noise.

I shut the video off and one of our exceptionally well behaved children turned to me and said, "Well, so much for that. Good job problem solving." Yes, he is a bit mature for a wee folk, but I was glad to have his calm camaraderie during the chaos.