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Helping Students Who Interrupt

Blurting, interrupting, talking out of turn… whatever you call it, this behavior can be an extremely distracting habit of some of our students. Julia Cook is one of my absolute FAVORITE authors when it comes to books that teach our students about social and emotional skills, and she has the perfect book that can open the discussion about interrupting!

My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook *Affiliate Link

My Mouth is a Volcano is about a little boy named Louis who has thoughts that are all very important to him. The problem is, he says all of his thoughts out loud, interrupting is friends, teacher and family! Through the book, Louis learns how to keep his thoughts inside, and wait until the time is right to share them out loud. Our students are just like Louis – and developmentally, they have a hard time understanding that what THEY have to say is just as important as what someone else has to say. My Mouth is a Volcano gives your students a thought process to model whenever they feel their “volcano is going to burst,” hopefully lessening the frequency of interruptions during lessons. To extend student learning, I created a small visual for the ‘repeat offenders’ guilty of constant interruption. I laminated everything (the chart and the volcano pieces), and then put velcro behind the volcanos and on the chart. Then, when I had a student caught “erupting” I would go over and take one of their volcanos off the chart. This was a great NONVERBAL way to redirect and remind students of expectations! I set a goal with the student that indicated how many volcanos they needed left at the end of the day to earn a sticker… worked like a charm. Interested in more help with a class of interrupters?  Check out this 5-day mini unit using My Mouth is a Volcano by clicking here 🙂
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