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Hello Brittany,
Engagement is hard to keep with young students. Through my time in preschool classrooms in the past, I understand how hard it is to keep young students engaged in activities for long periods of time. My best advice would be to constantly change what you have the students doing and slowly build up their stamina when it comes to attention. Based upon your estimate of their current time spent engaged, I would only plan activities that last five minutes or less. After these five minutes, I would recommend moving on to something different so they stay interested. A good way to keep this fast-paced environment moving without too much chaos would be to have hands-on centers. Students would rotate between centers every few minutes keeping them engaged in a variety of activities. As time goes on, you can increase time spent on one activity to increase stamina. This should be done in a slow process.
Another way to keep students engaged is to play off their interests. If a student shows interest in a topic or has a question, investigate these ideas. If they are interested, they are more likely to stay engaged longer.
I hope these ideas help,
Chloe Zierke
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