​​Keeping children's attention can be very challenging in a classroom environment. Not all children are wired the same and not all our curriculum objectives are very engaging. 90% of the information available to us was created in the past 2 years which is a mind-blowing fact! As Ben Parr states, the modern world is full of information and so for us teachers, our challenge is to make our information and learning, that we are presenting to our students, more important and more engaging than anything else. An impossible task you may think. 

Ben states that in order to gain attention, there are 3 stages: Immediate, short and long. this links to our classroom environment and is fairly straight forward. Immediate attention refers to small individual tasks that may be set within one lesson. Short term attention refers to children being engaged within a single lesson and long term links to a child being engaged across an entire unit of learning.

​In the classroom, we can use these as a focus and ambition for our own lessons. We can use these stages to grab children's attention and foster a love of learning which will engage them not only in the short term but for life.

​Do you have a reluctant writer in your class? Reluctant writers can be a challenge in class. There are many reasons why students may be reluctant writers and identifying the cause for their reluctance is the first step in helping them reengage with Literacy. What types of reluctant writers are there and how can we support them?

​Kids develop motor skills at different rates. But when young kids struggle with fine motor skills, they can have trouble with key tasks like grasping utensils (like pencils), moving objects with their fingertips, and using tools like scissors. They may also have difficulty learning to tie shoes. If your child’s fine motor skills need a little extra help, try these fun activities.