ABSTRACT
Carpet sessions are commonplace in primary classrooms, especially with younger children. They allow direct interaction between you and the pupils but also provide an environment for messing about if the session is tedious or you insist that they stay seated for too long. Although even the youngest children can concentrate for a surprising length of time, it is best to keep the time to around twenty minutes maximum. There are some occasions when it is easier to manage the situation if the children are sitting on their chairs, such as when it is difficult to see a visual aid from the floor. At the start of the day or after an exciting lesson or a wet playtime, children are often more unsettled and animated than usual. It is worth having a simple individual task ready for them to do for the first few minutes, such as copying, drawing, completing missing words, etc, or a simple response game, such as ‘Do this, do that’. After they have calmed down, the prepared lesson can begin.
