What is a teacher to do? If I say,"Toddlers, that is too loud! Stop screaming in the classroom, please!"....they hear,"It's a good idea to scream louder. And also, grab three friends to join you. It's really fun."
If I ignore it, the uber-persistent attention seekers scream louder until I make eye contact. Which is usually followed by a smile, an unspoken understanding between us that they are winning this particular battle of wits and then a few more screams...just for good measure. And I don't want to send a message that screaming is an acceptable form of verbal expression. Gahhh!
I picked the brains of our amazing office staff team to come up with a strategy to turn the scream train around. One wise friend suggested the kids might enjoy screaming into a cup or container. Ya know, give them a place to focus their vocal stylings. Yes...I think I can do something with this idea! Hence, the 'Scream Jar' was born.
Here's the plan...
1. A kid screams.
2. We state that we hear screaming.
3. We ask the screamer if they have more screams that they cannot contain.
4. They say yes 99% of the time.
5. We offer the scream jar...we can't let any of those screams get away! We have to catch them all!!
6. They like this idea and grab the jar many more times to 'catch those screams'.
7. We praise them for all of their hard work.
8. They start to learn to feel when the urge to scream is upon them and begin to gain some self regulation skills to hold it in until they can 'dispose' of it properly.
9. They forget that screaming just for screaming sake was once a fun game and they move on to more productive adventures.
Who knows how long it will last...but for now, it's slowing the train down just enough for me to feel hopeful for quieter days ahead!
Here's what you will need to make one (or one hundred) of your very own:
(Large yogurt container, roll of cute patterned contact paper, some 'screaming mouths' printed from the internets, clear tape, scissors, ribbon, white duct tape)
I first found some delightful screaming mouths in the land of Internet clip art and cut them out. Then I taped one mouth at the bottom of each container and secured it with clear tape on top:
Hahahaha...right. That's my favorite part. Continuing on. Next step was to make the outside look cuter (because cute things make my heart feel happy). I cut one long piece of the contact paper to wrap the outside. Since it's a curved container, I had to stick on small sections at a time so just cut the piece as I went. Then, just overlapped each small piece as I worked my way around:
Next step was to make 2 holes in the side of the container with a scissors to push the ribbon thru....BE CAREFUL! As I turned the tip of the scissors around to puncture a hole, my little finger was in the way when the scissors finally went through....ouchie. Just a little cut, but it wasn't one of my finest gold star shining moments in crafting.
Once all the holes were made, I strung ribbon thru so the kids could wear the jar around their neck...for easy screaming access:
I tied some knots on the ends of each ribbon on the inside and covered them with white duct tape to make them secure. Because, well, if a toddler sees something they can take apart, they will take it apart:
We introduced the concept to the kids this week and they took right to it:
One last housekeeping message about where the jars go when the screams are not freely flowing and in need of capture...just put them on the green dots, please:
I'm hopeful that this tool will help the kids to move forward from just screaming willy nilly and find it more delightful to contain the squeals in their fancy new jars...at least for a few days:)
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