Hi,
There are lots of reasons children aren't focussing on a task- they may be really excited as they are out of school doing something different or the task may just not be grabbing them. I would always suggest a short starter activity which will get the children to engage and explore quickly. If visiting a site or museum then a 10 minute chance to explore the site or museum with a 'challenge' in mind will give them the chance to chatter, look and have fun- just asking them to look at a specific part of the site/museum and pick their favourite object is a simple way of doing this and they can be set off to in pairs and asked to talk to their partner about why they find something interesting . Getting a bunch of excited children off a coach and expecting them to sit down straight away rarely works.
I go into schools and as part of my session I give out trays of artefacts. Eventually we do some structured sorting activities but for the first few minutes I just let the children explore what is in front of them, show their friend, say 'wow' wobble the loose teeth in the animal jaws and generally let of steam a little- I'll also be using the time to notice what is really grabbing their attention and might try to adapt the sorting activities to help answer some initial questions. At the end each child chooses something that has interested them and draws, measures, reconstructs, photographs or writes about it- their choice of object and their choice of how to record it so they can remember it later.
If the problem is that the activities aren't grabbing them then you need to find ways of challenging them to think more deeply about what they are doing so have a bank of tricky questions up your sleeve which will start to stretch them. Some groups manage the sorting activities remarkably quickly so rather than them wait for other groups to catch up I always have a few additional bits and pieces that are much more debatable and I'll give those to that group.
Excitable children are great- they are enthused and raring to go so make the most of it and just be prepared to go for a quiet walk afterwards!
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