Friend or Foe? Fidget Toys in the Classroom

Fidget Toys: the very thought can make teachers (and parents) groan and roll their eyes. From stress balls to fidget spinners, there always seems to be some new gadget taking over your classroom. Should they be banned? Should they be embraced? The debate has been ongoing ever since stress balls first gained popularity in the 1980s. The practice of using sensory tools, however, has been around for much longer. Baoding balls originated during the Ming dynasty and were used to reduce stress, improve brain function, and aid in dexterity development. Before weighted blankets, there were Turkish yorgans which date back to the 16th century. The average winter yorgan weighed anywhere from nine to thirteen pounds. Komboloi, or “worry beads”, were used in Ancient Greece to promote relaxation.

While these sensory tools might have been around for centuries, the science behind them has only recently been looked into. Dr. Anna Jean Ayres first identified Sensory Integration in the 1960’s when she noticed there were children who struggled with functional tasks who didn’t fit into the specific categories of disability that were used at the time. She developed the term “Sensory Integrative Dysfunction” to describe the problems faced by children whose brains struggle to receive, process, or respond to sensory input. Sensory input instructs us on how to respond to our environment and there are consequences from being over or under-stimulated, especially for children who are still learning how to process these cues. When confronted with bright lights, messy or cluttered spaces, and loud noises, children can become agitated and retreat to quieter spaces; whether that is physically finding relief in a less stimulating area or by shutting off their sensory receptors and essentially shutting down. When stimulation is restricted, as is common in a traditional classroom, children will find their own ways to meet their sensory needs. Teachers know exactly what this looks like: tapping, bouncing up and down, kicking, touching everything and everyone, chewing on pencils, making noises, or getting out of their seat to go on some made-up “but I really needed to throw this away” mission.

This is exactly where fidget toys come in handy. (Ha! I didn’t even realize that was a pun until revising this post). And I’m not talking about fidget spinners in all their noisy, distracting glory.

It might be counter-intuitive to think that doing two things at once can enhance a student’s ability to focus on their lessons but evidence is slowly backing it up. One study demonstrated how increased movement boosted the cognitive performance of children with ADHD. Another found that students who used stress balls had improved focus, attitude, social interactions, and even writing abilities. The trick with fidget toys is finding those that don’t require so much brain power that they pull focus from the main task. How many of you have your own fidget methods that you revert to without realizing? Do you chew on pencils or repeatedly click your pen? Perhaps you doodle or bounce your leg. We all have different ideas of what an optimal “focus zone” looks like and it’s important to help students discover their own learning styles and preferences. It’s important for adults too–I decided to invest in my own fidget toys a few months ago and I always keep one at my desk. 

Looking out over your sea of pupils, it can be a little overwhelming to try and figure out their individual needs but as I always say, “When in doubt, ask it out!” As you go into a new school year, reach out to the parents and ask what has helped their child calm down in the past. Do they have a history of thumb-sucking? They would probably respond well to chewelry or rubber pencil toppers. Having a quiet space in your classroom or noise-canceling headphones would be good options for children who need time alone in their room to defuse. Some students need physical contact in order to stay grounded so pressure vests or weighted lap pads would benefit them the most. 

Another great way to learn your students’ individual learning styles is to involve them! Have them complete a task while adjusting the volume of background noise and have a discussion about which one was easiest for them to work with. Give them fidget toys to use while reading to them or showing them a video and then ask them if they were able to focus better or if it was a distraction. This also helps your students develop self-regulation skills. Giving your students access to different sensory tools allows them to stop seeing them as toys and start to recognize when they really need them.

If this sounds like wishful thinking, there are lots of people who would agree with you. Fortunately there are also lots of tips and tricks out there to help you integrate fidget toys into your classroom. Here are some of the most common ones that I encountered in my research:

  1. BOUNDARIES. Work with your students to come up with rules for the fidget toys that they are willing to follow. Post the rules somewhere in your classroom as a visual reminder.
  2. Have a variety of tools available to the class. This can prevent jealousy among students and allows you to use discretion in deciding what toys are actually beneficial. 
  3. Find toys that don’t produce noise or require sight to use. The kids should be able to use their hands or feet to fidget while using their eyes and ears to learn.
  4. Be patient! Once your students get used to the sensory tools in the classroom, the novelty will wear off and they’ll be less of a distraction.
  5. Remind your students that “fair” isn’t the same thing as “equal”. Different people have different needs and it’s important to support those needs.

Ultimately the choice to integrate sensory tools into your classroom is up to you! The fad fidget toys will come and go, but there are plenty of tried and true options that can really work wonders when properly used.

Are fidget toys a menace to society or a misunderstood ally? What challenges or successes have you seen come from them?

Why Do I Write About Personality Typing in Education?

why do I write about personality typing in education?

I’ve worked on multiple blog series on this page about personality typing and how to use it in the classroom. You can see them here: 

Myers-Briggs 

Enneagram 

The Child Whisperer

Some may wonder why writing about these different personality types and why they can be beneficial in the classroom. The reason I’ve written about multiple types of personality testing is that I know some personality tests make more sense than others. One person may prefer to use Myers-Briggs while another prefers to study The Child Whisperer. But how can they help in the classroom? 

It helps us have empathy for our students. 

It gives us a little inside window into their brains and the decisions they are making. 

It helps us learn more about ourselves as well. 

It reminds us that we are all different with different goals, thoughts, and priorities. 

It can motivate you to learn more about not only your students, but coworkers, family members, and more! 

It paints a picture in our minds that we all have different personalities and each of them works together in different ways to create the world we live in. 

There are so many benefits to learning more about different personality tests and using them in your classroom. What benefits have you found? 

Conclusion to The Child Whisperer

the child whisperer in education

This post is part of a series on The Child Whisperer and using it in the classroom. To see more, head here.

I’ve now written about all four Child Whisperer types and how to use them in the classroom. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again, it truly can be incredibly helpful to learn more about your student’s personality types when you are spending so much time in a room together. It can ease frustrations and give you more clarity in some of their behaviors and actions. Whether you use enneagram, Myers-Briggs, The Child Whisperer, or another personality type test, it can give you a better idea of each of your students. 

Personally, I think The Child Whisperer is one of the easier personality types to use in the classroom setting, because it’s geared toward children, and there are only four types. It focuses on the energy of the child and how they utilize said energy. 

If you haven’t yet, check out all four types of The Child Whisperer on our blog and let us know if it’s helpful for you to use in your classroom! 

Type Four: The Child Whisperer

the child whisperer in education

This post is part of a series on The Child Whisperer and using it in the classroom. To see more, head here.

Alright, it’s time to talk about Type Four of the child whisperer! For The Child Whisperer types, it’s important to remember that this is not just personality typing, it’s channeling in on a child’s energy and how they use their energy. Most everyone has all four types in them, but one or two shine through the most in the majority of situations. 

Type four is typically known as “The Serious Child” A type four’s primary connection to the world is through intellect and logic. 

Words that describe type four: critical thinkers, straightforward, logical, efficient, and thorough.

Tips for teaching a type four: 

These students thrive on consistency. They love and need a schedule and can be thrown off when the schedule is changed, especially last minute. 

Type fours are big picture thinkers, giving them the ability to look at the finer details to create a better all-over big picture. 

Oftentimes these are the kids you are constantly urging to “just have fun” throughout the day and through certain games or activities, but they cannot see it this way. Their mind is on work and getting work done. 

They can feel vulnerable when they do not have all of the answers. 

Type fours want to know what to expect, how to expect it, and when to expect it. Giving them a heads up of how many minutes they have to read a paragraph of text or how many times they need to write out their spelling words can be a very powerful tool for them to find success in their work.

Do you have a type four child in your classroom? What have you learned through teaching this type of student? 

Get to Know You Games for Back to School

We are officially on the countdown here for school starting in the fall! However, since we start mid-August, that’s technically late summer… Needless to say, school prep is in full swing at our house with my daughter starting preschool in 6 short weeks and myself trying to decide (just like every year) if I want to substitute teach a few days here and there. 

With going back to school also comes “get to know you games” that I am certain each teacher starts googling as they get closer and closer to that first day of school. Well never fear, I have a list here of great get-to-know-you games that you can pull out for students to get to know each other, and for YOU to get to know them. 

Would You Rather

Materials: A list of “would you rather” questions. 

How to play: Come up with, or even google search, a list of “would you rather” questions. These are questions like “Would you rather eat only vegetables all day, or only fruits all day?” or “Would you rather have indoor or outdoor recess?” You can come up with your own questions that you’re genuinely curious about, or find silly ones online! 

For them to tell you their decision, they choose a side of the room. You determine which side is which for each question, and the students all move to that side of the room to choose their answer. You can determine if you want the middle of the room to be “neutral” or if they MUST choose a side and cannot remain neutral. 

Drop The Cloth

Materials: A big blanket or sheet, not see-through and fairly wide.

How to play: Split the class into two teams. Choose two students as your “helpers.” These students can be swapped out throughout the game to make sure everyone has a chance to play. Create a line in the middle of the floor either with the blanket or a long piece of tape, and have the two teams sit on either side of the line, on the floor. Your two helpers will lift up the blanket, creating a barrier between the two teams so that they cannot see each other. Choose one person from each team to move forward and sit right in front of the blanket. On the count of three, the helpers drop the blanket and the two chosen students have to race to say the other student’s name before the other person. Whichever student says the opposite student’s name first, wins a point. Bonus, you as the teacher jump in with one of the teams to see how many names you can remember! 

How to win: You can either say “first to _____ points wins” or play as long as the game naturally goes, or until every student has a turn, and see which team has the most points in the end.

Snowball Fight

Age range: 2nd grade- high school (or once your entire class can read fairly well.) 

Materials: Plenty of paper, a large open space (a classroom can work fine, but somewhere like the gym or field outside can be better). 

How to play: Write out one “get to know you” question for each sheet of paper. You’ll need at least one question per child, but having 10-15 more is also beneficial to have a good variety of questions. You can either write these out yourself or if your students are older, you can have them submit their own get to know you questions. 

A distinct divider will need to be in the middle of the space you are playing in, whether that be a line on the gym floor or a strip of tape on the classroom floor. Divide your class into two teams and dump the crumpled pieces of paper into the middle of the floor. Give the students 30 seconds to a minute to then throw the “snowballs” across the room to the other team. 

*A great rule to have in place for this game is to only throw one snowball at a time. Don’t learn this the hard way as I did! 

Their goal is to have the least amount of snowballs on their side of the room when the timer goes off. Once the timer goes off, every student takes a seat where they are standing and grabs the nearest snowball to them. Then they uncrumple a piece of paper and answer the question to the class. Bonus if they say their name before answering the question! Go around the room until each student has read a question. If time permits, reset the game and play again! 

How to win: Whichever team has the least amount of snowballs on their side when the game ends, wins! You can do one round, or the best one out of three, three out of five, etc. This is also a great game for students to practice their listening skills as you quickly go around having students answer the questions. 

Two Truths and a Lie

How to play: Each student must come up with two truths and one lie about themselves. They can be provided with a paper to write them down if you feel like they will forget by the time the game is around to them. They’ll say the two truths and one lie out loud to the class in whatever order they would like, and the rest of the class has to determine which one is the lie. Here is an example.

I love orange juice. (lie)

My favorite color is blue. (truth)

I traveled to the Oregon coast this summer. (truth)

Go around the room until every student has had an opportunity to say their own two truths and a lie. 

How to win: This can be a simple “get to know you” activity where it’s just all fun and games with no winner. Or you can play individually where each person tracks their own points. Another way is to break the class into groups and have each of them decide together what the lie is, to bring in a little teamwork! And then keep score to see how many each group gets correct. 

Roll the Ball

Materials: A small ball 

How to play: The whole class sits in a circle. The teacher starts by rolling the ball across the circle to a student and asks the student a get to know you question. 

*Tip- sample questions can be written upon the board for students if they need to reference them. 

The student catches the ball, states their name, and answers the question. Then this student rolls the ball across the circle to a different student, repeating the process. Go until each has had a turn to answer questions.

Teaching Perceivers: Using MBTI In The Classroom

This post is part of a series of posts on teaching to different personality type indicators as found in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. To see more, head here.

In the Myers-Briggs world, Judging vs Perceiving is how we interact with the outside world. Between the two, we will use both of them, but our natural instincts are to move toward one versus the other. This post is focusing on the Perceiving types in the classroom. 

Traits that can define a Perceiver: 

Flexible and spontaneous. 

Ready to adapt to whatever the world brings. 

Can seem messy, unorganized, or sporadic. 

They wait until the last minute to do their school work. Nearing deadlines are the best motivation for them! 

Perceiving types do not like to organize the world, they want the world to organize them. They are going to be your students with messy desks, typically turning in their assignments late, and paying little attention to the clock. They like to feel the room, watch their surroundings, and make decisions as they go, instead of lining it all out ahead of time. 

Ways to support a Perceiving type in the classroom- First and foremost, respect them! Perceiving types can get a bad rap because they do not follow social norms. However, this is their preferred way to interact with the world and will thrive if allowed to be themselves. Try to give them gentle reminders about deadlines, important dates, and events, if possible. 

Ways you can help a Perceiving type grow in the classroom- Give them hard, fast deadlines and hold them to it! Line out the daily schedule and be consistent with it so they can stay on track, but be respectful of their need to adapt to changing situations. 

A common misconception is that Perceiving types are not organized or do not have a plan. To Judging types, this seems sensible! However, they do have an organization system and they do have a plan, it only looks different from what you are expecting it to be. 

In my personal opinion, the Judging/Perceiving types are two opposite types that I believe can be the hardest types to understand each other when we are the opposite types. I am very much a Judging type, but I have many close friends and family that are Perceiving types. It’s frustrating for me that they will not create a plan and stick with it in our day to day interactions. While on the other hand, they become frustrated with me because I am constantly pushing them to make a plan, but they function with a go-with-the-flow attitude. 

That’s why I believe understanding these types in the classroom is essential for success! It can be helpful as a teacher to understand the opposite types so that when you inevitably end up with kids in your classroom that do not interact with the world the way you do, you can understand why and appreciate them for what they do.