Peer Conflict
Two children reach for the single yellow dump truck in the block area at the exact same time. Both hold on and begin to pull, and one starts to cry. How do you support these students?
- Pause the toy
- Address classrooms expectations (We are kind, we are safe)
- Name the children's emotions and validate their feelings around wanting the same toy
- Offer problem solving solution from "Fair ways to play" poster
The teacher announces it is time to clean up and line up for outside. One child runs across the classroom and hides behind the shelf.
How do you support this child during clean up?
- Give extra timer
- Identify the feeling child is having around clean up
- Offer to help
- Make it a game
Your class is outside on the playground and a child needs to go potty.
What do you do if it's only your and your assistant?
- Take how every many students needed to leave your assistant in ratio to the bathroom with you.
- Ask if anyone else needs to go, if more than 9 need to go, just have the whole class pause outside time and go inside for potty
-Remind all kiddos to try before
A child is walking into class and trips on a chair but quickly gets back up. No marks or bumps were left.
No incident report or accident report
One child has been on the bike for a long time. Another child stands near the bike and cries or yells, "You've been on there forever, it's my turn now!"
What do you do?
- Talk to child who is yelling about how we can ask for a turn on the bike
- Pause child riding the bike and support asking for a turn
- Give 2 minute warning
- Tell child waiting that in 2 minutes it will be their turn
- Offer a waiting activity or song to help the child wait
A child becomes frustrated with a puzzle and throws the pieces across the classroom.
How do you support this child?
- Acknowledge the child's feeling
- Name the emotion
- Model how to ask for help
- Ask child to help clean up and ask them to ask you for help
- Reconnect and build puzzle with child
You have all teacher plus a float in your room, a child falls and needs an ice pack.
What do you do?
Send assistant or float to get an ice pack
A child is playing on the play structure when they ask their friend to push them on the slide, when the friend pushes them, the child slides too fast and hits their head on the ground.
Accident Report w/ call for head injury
A child wants to hug a friend. The friend says, “No,” and moves away. The first child continues trying to hug them.
How do you support this?
- Block the child trying to hug
- Acknowledge that the first child said "no" and remind them about classroom expectations "We are safe" "We are kind"
- Model how the child can ask for a hug next time
During circle time, one child repeatedly interrupts, calls out answers, makes noises, and talks to nearby friends.
How do you redirect this child?
- Remind them of circle time rules
- Have assistant support have them walk away
- Assistant offers an alternative to circle time
** BONUS SOLUTION: Ask child to be circle time helper and removed visuals
You had a fun activity planned for the day but due to low numbers and short staff, you are at a one ratio today. The activity will need a lot of supervision.
What do you do?
- Postpone the activity for another day
- Modify the activity so there isn't as much supervision needed
A child refuses to transition inside after playing outside after teacher has offered many option and 10 minutes pass, the child decides to transition inside.
Incident Report - elopements/refusing to transition with the class
Two children are playing together when one child becomes frustrated and says a cuss word. Another child immediately repeats the word and starts laughing. The first child continues using the word because they notice it gets a reaction from their peers.
How so you help the child without focusing on the word that was said or cussing?
- Name the emotion
- Support child using the emotion name and focus on the feeling not the word that was said
- Talk to peers about how we can express our emotions using the emotion name
- Ignore further mentions of the word to not give more attention
- If others continue even when ignoring and not giving attention, speak with parents about what words the child is using
Since this child's first day of school, they are quick to temper, do not play with others and any teacher direction, they respond with “NO!”
What do you do next?
- BUILD A RELATIONSHIP
- Learn about their interests
- Give clear and concise expectations but offer options for how to get their
- Be patient and remember each day is a new day
You have 15 students in class and a child begins to have extreme dysregulation, throwing chairs and hard toys across the room, nearly hitting peers. You call for support but their are not staff available.
What do you do?
- Have assistant take 10 students outside and have the four who stay inside away from the child and block, or remove items until a staff can come or child calms down.
A classmate throws a block into the air and it falls hitting a child on the leg and leaving a mark.
Accident report for child who was accidentally hit
One child accidentally knocks down a tall block tower that another child spent the last ten minutes building. The child who was building starts to cry loudly and the child who accidentally knocked the tower down runs away.
How can you support both children?
- Bring student back together
- Talk with child who is crying and acknowledge their sadness
- Ask other child to offer to help rebuild the tower together
- Explain how children can ask each other for help
A child is climbing the shelves in your room and hopping from shelf to shelf.
How do you stop them?
- Block them from hopping
- Offer to help them down
- Remind them of safety expectations
- Use your hands/arms to block child so they cannot walk across the shelf
Multiple classrooms are short staffed and all admin are in ratio when a teacher calls for a bathroom break. You hear this and have 10 children in your classroom with two staff, what can you do?
- One of the teachers can step into ratio for their collegue to use the bathroom
A child is playing at the table when all of the sudden they start to throws chair and toys, hitting two kids in the process. When you engage them, they begin to hit you with a closed fist and start cussing at you. After you acknowledge their feelings and find out the problem they apologize on their own and pick up the things they threw.
Incident Report to track data of this sudden change in behavior.
Accident report for the two children hit during the dysregulation