You are a third grade teacher in a public school. The PTO has awarded your class extra money

Question

to have a holiday surprise, an entertainer such as a clown or magician, come to your class on the
day before winter break.

You are aware that two children in your class would be classified with
a difficult temperament, while 12 others are slow-to-warm up, and the other 15 are easy,
according to research by Thomas and Chess. How might you prepare each of the different
children, taking into account their temperaments, for this "surprise visitor" to come to your
class?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

I would not keep this news a surprise, realizing that both the difficult temperament and the
slow-to-warm-up children would needadvance warning in order to get used to the idea. So I would
tell them exactly what would happen, showing them photos of the entertainer and telling them what he
would do while in the class. I would give children a choice of 3 colored circles to choose so the
entertainer would know who to call on for volunteers-red for those not comfortable volunteering,
yellow for those who are not quite sure, and green for those eager to get a turn to help the entertainer.
I would also explain this to the entertainer in advance and discuss my student's temperaments with
them.