5 Tips for Managing Recess Behavior



I recently had a student who had a difficult time at recess while I was on sick leave. The situation was unsafe and left a lot of the staff frustrated. I sat down with our building principal and one of my colleagues to develop a plan for my friend. The plan is pretty elaborate and specific to his needs but I do feel that sharing out ideas for other special educators who may be in the same position will be helpful. I compiled 5 of my favorite tips for managing recess behaviors: 


 Data Collection  

Data is so important. You need data to determine the function of the behavior, and therefore establish appropriate interventions. In my case, my data was important because my student was exhibiting behaviors at recess; a time when there are absolutely zero demands placed on him. When he can choose to do whatever he wants! 

So, the first thing I did was grab my data. I had been taking data for a few weeks before the incident because my friend was exhibiting some defiant behaviors towards other adults (other than myself). He was refusing to listen to any adult in the school--- but myself. So I started my ABC chart and started collecting away. 

My data showed me that my friend was doing the exact opposite of what was being asked of him. I realized that when people were re-directing him, they were using a strong intonation and giving him a "demand". "Sit down" would cause him to purposely NOT sit down, the demand "line up" would cause him to run the other way. 

 Structure the Un-structured Recess

As a special education teacher, I know that structure is so important. My classroom is structured and consistent. Typically, recess is a student's favorite part of their day but for special education students, this can be one of the most difficult parts of their day due to the lack of structure. 

I created a visual support system that gave him options of different parts of the playground. This gave him control of which areas he would like to play on. I also had a student in the past that I did this for and we had to limit his choices due to physical limitations. We also used a time-timer to help him with transitioning. 


For the particular student that I am working with now, this student chooses what area he is going to play in. We have divided his recess into segments, and the para that is working with him will go up to him at the end of a segment, and ask if he wants to switch or stay. He will choose, and then we continue this until recess is over. 

Front Loading Expectations 

I created a visual support lanyard for myself and my para to go over with him before going out to recess. We go through the lanyard and discuss how he can earn his check marks. I decided to keep the rules to four simple, all encompassing rules so that we weren't overwhelming him with too many directions.  I also took him around the perimeter of the playground and we discussed what staying on the playground meant and where he was safe to play. 


After we go over the lanyard we have him choose a tangible reward. I decided not to use icons for his reward and actually tape the object to the visual support board. He helps me tape it to the board and I feel this is giving him a sense of control over the situation. 

Provide Visual Supports

I made a token board with visual supports to match the lanyard. After going over the lanyard and front loading the expectations, we have the student choose what he is working for before he goes outside. I have been taping the actual item to the board instead of providing a picture icon to match. Having this concrete item taped to the board is a constant reminder during recess what he is working for. My para carries it with her at recess. She also wears the lanyard. When my friend needs re-directed, she walks up and points to the board and/or her lanyard to the specific rule he needs to be reminded of. This has been working so much better! 


Earning the Reward

Once he has done his job, my para goes over the token board and gives him his checks. If he gets all four, he earns his reward and it is given to him immediately. He is allowed to eat it then, save it for lunch, or save it for later. We wanted him to have control over when he gets his reward.

Planned Distraction 

We gave my friend a job to distract him from one of his biggest issues, lining up. My friend is now responsible for opening the door with a key fob to let the recess monitor ring the bell to line up the other students. This gives him sense of control and importance. He loves it. He is actually running to the door to get the key fob instead of running off the playground :) 

Those are my best tips on dealing with recess behaviors! It's so hard when you, as the teacher, are not outside to execute your plan. That's why having clear expectations for not only the student and staff is imperative for success! What tips do you have for recess behavior? Share in a comment below!


I have also included some other tips we are using in our plan for my friend who is having difficulty with demands:

Changing our Directives

When my data showed me that demands like "line up" and "sit down" were causing him to do opposite, I had to talk to my para's about re-phrasing how we are giving him instructions. Instead of saying "Sit down!", we are going to say "Come on over, it's time for reading" or if it's time for him to line up for a transition instead of saying "line up!" we are saying "It's time for us to go to lunch, let's get in line". This has been so hard for them. We have been working on this for a week, and it's still a work in progress, but he is responding so much better to the para's.  This is not to say that when he is unsafe, or could harm others that we aren't going to use a strict, loud demand. This is just changing the way we are talking to him during daily instruction, transition, and directives.  

Getting Other Staff in on the Plan



In order to ensure that my para was the one in control at recess, we had to discuss with the building staff what my data showed, and that having four to five adults giving my student demands was not an ideal situation. Instead, I asked them to stand near for support but to let my para manage the situation. Should she need assistance, staff would be near, but she would be the one and only person giving him instructions and directions. 


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Morning Meeting



Morning meeting is one of my favorite parts of our day! I love that it is so structured, consistent and it gets us started on the right track. When I switched over to teaching more severe students, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to incorporate a lot into my morning meetings. In the past, we had a large hands-on calendar binder that the students used to follow along with me. When I whipped out those bad boys this year, I was like "whoa, this is not going to work" that binder may have worked for me in the past, but with this new group of kiddos I needed to cut it down. I had to totally re-structure my morning meeting and I am so pleased with the outcome! Here is our morning meeting schedule:

Student Check-In

When my students arrive in the morning, they unpack their things, and do some type of name work whether that be matching the letter in their name, typing their name on their label-makers, or practice writing it on the lines (if you'd like to see more on how I differentiate name writing, visit my instagram page! I did a post and videos of our name activities). Once those are turned in, the students "check-in" on my interactive white board. They drag their name to "here". Then they have 10 minutes of free sensory play. Why do I start their day out with sensory play? I have found that it makes transition for my students easier, and it also takes some students longer than others to complete activities. I set the timer, and when the timer beeps the students will sit down at our group table and our morning meeting begins. I pull up the "check-in" board and we talk about who is here and who is not here. We count the students in each category, we find the numbers (given a choice of 2) and then hang them on the board. We also use this time to say good morning and I like to use their AAC devices to ask them yes/no questions about students that are present or absent.



 Morning Check-In on our Interactive Whiteboard 


Here/ Not Here 

Interactive Calendar 

After we have decided how many students are at school, we go on to our interactive calendar. I use the boardmaker studio program to make my interactive calendar. Students will come up to the board and we will "cross off" the days that we have been at school. Once we complete that, we talk about any special days that month, which special we will have that day (art, music, gym, technology). Then we find what day it is on our interactive calendar. After we find the day, we sing our days of the week song and use sign language. One of my students is highly motivated by music, so we use this to keep him actively engaged. My students are starting to pick up on the signs, and it's amazing to see them "singing" along! 


Interactive Calendar Template 
(Boardmaker Studio)

Weather Check 

After calendar, we check the temperature. I move the arrow for my older students to see on the temperature gage if the weather is hot, warm, cool, or cold. We discuss this orally and then we have a friend check the weather by looking out our window. The friend will tell us what the weather is like, and then we dress Joey for the day! I use a file folder system to store all of Joey's pieces and use my choice board to give selections to the students. Once Joey is dressed, we move on to a more hands-on calendar. 


Temperature Guide and Joey the Weather Guy from Unique Learning System


Choice Board 

Simple Hands-On Calendar

I re-invented my calendar from my larger calendar book set, to a more simplified version. In our simple version, we are working on finding the day, month, weather,  and temperature. I have been slowing adding more skills to this calendar, and this is where we are currently but we still have "yesterday was" and "tomorrow will be" to add. I think this will be a hard topic for my students. When using this simple calendar, I give my students a choice of 2 using our choice board. We love the choice board!


I put my calendar in a 2" inch binder for ease of use 







Last year, I used the more advanced version of this calendar book for my learners. Here are some picks below of how I set that one up and the link to the resource. I have recently updated this version to have better fonts, graphics and a cleaner looking design. I also added American Sign Language options for teachers using ASL to teach days of the week. Each student had one of these calendar books to follow along!





Here is a picture of the updated version. 


Music 

After we complete the calendar, I use youtube to project videos of various songs. We sing more days of the week songs to work on sign language. We also sing a song called "one little finger" every day. My hope was to get the students involved in doing the hand motions to the song. At first it was a lot of hand over hand, but now the students are catching on and participating in the hand motions. We also will sing songs that have to do with our core-vocabulary words. 



Walking Walking  (a sample of a song I would use for core vocab word "STOP"

Adapted Books

After we have completed all of the music activities I introduce our daily adapted book. I am really focusing hard on using adapted books that are related to the science and social studies content I am currently instructing. This has pushed me to create some of my own supplemental adapted books and to think outside the box. When reading the books, I use my choice board to display picture options to students about the books. We will use AAC devices to answer questions about the books. After we have read the story, we have reached about our 30 minute maximum. My students are antsy, need restroom breaks, and some even transition to gen ed.  If you are interested in more themed adapted books, check out my instagram page. I share videos of our monthly adapted books. Look for them in my highlighted stories. 


This is how morning meeting looks in our classroom! How do you do morning meeting?

 
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