I did a reading time presentation for pre-school kids and they ate me alive. I showed fear, breaking into a sweat when the kids starting fidgeting within a minute of me starting to talk. I tried my best stories about the cats to keep their attention, but nothing was working until I brought out the book. The kids settled for a bit, but the book was short and after the last page, they were fidgeting again. I think I've nailed my school presentations down for older students, but I need to develop a whole different set of skills to grab the attention of pre-school kids. The presentation was humbling, and now I have something to prove to myself. I know that all my presentations are based on language... and if an audience hasn't developed their language skills yet, I'm dead in the water. Time to look at visual aids and figuring out how to adjust my stories for the younger set.
In my opinion, it's always good to fail once in a while. Keeps me on my toes and helps spur me to revamp my presentations so I won't fail again. Okay, back to the book.
Yes, the little ones are special. Talk to some Kindergarten and pre-school teachers about attention tools they use. When I read Robert Munsch stories to them, I always pull a repeated phrase that I teach them to say with me (he's good for that) and then they stay engaged. Follow up questions are hard with them, because you constantly have to redirect them to keep them focussed. But they probably loved it and went home and told their parents about it, so don't worry!
You should have fought their Champion and won their respect...works for me.
Kristin, thanks for the tip. It's funny reading your comment about redirecting the kids. Almost sounded like an episode of the Dog Whisperer. Maybe I need to make the kids run before the presentation.
Robb, I did fight their Champion over a stuffie. She beat me soundly.