Planning and Implementing
Effective Group Time Activities
CHAPTER 4
Definition
 A time for all the children to gather and learn as a
group from the teacher. The teacher is usally in
control at this time. There is usally an exciting lure
into the group time, and then through the use of
songs, hands on activities, story and creative
movement to reinforce, or introduce a topic.
Kinds of Learners
 LOOKERS (do they have something to look at?)
 Listeners (is there something to hear?)
 Movers and Shakers (do they have something to do,
or act out, or move some part of their body)
 We must plan for all children at our group time!!
Four Parts of Group Time
 Opening
 Body
 Closing
 Transitions
Opening
 Capture the children’s attention and get them
engaged
seating
 Carpet squares
 Shapes on floors
 All over the place
 In chairs
 ???
The Body
 Main purpose of the group time
 Props can be used
Aspects of Group time
 Beginning Welcome (attention getter)
 Movement (at some point , even of their fingers if
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you don’t want whole body movement)
Finger play/song (possibly to sing at the beginning
of group time to signal that we are starting and
eyes need to be on me!)
Book (or flannel story, puppet, big book, pictures)
Questions (thought through and open)
Props (helps the visual learners)
The Closing
 Very important to bring closure to the group time
 Review high points, but don’t go over and over.
Transitions
 Definition: techniques used by teachers to get
children and teachers from Point A to Point B
smoothly and without incident.
Kinds of transitions
 1. Musical Transitions
 either playing music
 singing of a song
 2. Cognitive Transitions
 take the form of directions that tie in with a type of perception
or memory skill.
Wearing red today
 What do we need to do next?
 What color leaf are you sitting on?

 3. Physical Transitions
 move the children to the next area with some sort of physical
skill
tiptoe to the door
 slither like a snake (both cognitive and physical)

 4. Creative Transitions
 these are often pretend type transitions

make up a silly rhyme when you dismiss the children.
 5. Pro social skills
 these would ask the children to find a friend to walk with

concern what if they don’t have a friend or if there is an odd
number of children, or if a child does not want to go with them
Keys to success
 Provide a variety of experiences
 Topic
 Actions
 Involvement
Questions
 Open ended
 Thought provoking
 Safe
Impacting Quality of Responses
 Wait time
 Clarity
 Placement
 Calling on children in different ways
 Thought level
Wait Time
 Increasing wait time increases number and quality of
responses.
 Three second average
 15 seconds is best
Clarity
 Ask specific question, then stop talking.
Avoid Unclear Questions
 For example “What about elephants?” would be a
hard question to answer because the children would
not know which direction the teacher was going with
the question.
Avoid Asking Series of Questions
 What do tigers eat? Do they eat plants? Would you
find one attacking another tiger to eat it?
 If we ask too many questions at one time, then it
becomes overwhelming and can we even remember
the first question asked?
Placement of Questions
 Before reading—to comprehend specific information
 During reading—to focus
 After reading—for general comprehension
Methods of Calling on Children
 Solitary response (Jim, what is the date?)
 Controlled response (What is the date, Jim?)
 Uncontrolled response (What is the date?)
 Mass response (What is the date, class?)
Thought Level
 WE need to take the developmental level of the
children into place when we look at the thought level
of the questions.
 Literal
 Interpretive
 Application
Literal
 Read the actual words said. Is today Wednesday
September 13th?
 Which is more a confirmation of the date and day of
the week!
 “Does he love me?”
Interpretation
 Read between the words Is today Wednesday
September 13th?
What is the teacher trying to say to me, did I
forget something, am I not supposed to be here
today?
 “Did he kiss me like he loves me?”
Application
 Read beyond the words. Is today Wednesday
September 13th?
 and as the Teacher and I reminding the student
about their assignment that is due?
“Will he ask me to marry—
him?”
Improving Questioning
 Wait time
 Clarity
 Placement
 Calling on children
 Thought level