How do I keep things flowing for an EXTREMELY demanding group of 4 year old students?

I do….she spoke clearly and “calmly” only after everyone calmed down and wore a habit and brandished a 3’ wooden ruler.

That being said…the wait until all kids are quiet to proceed and engaging the hyper busy bodies worked for me as a Cub Scout Leader. Very clear concise expectations with a little bit of reward they can earn worked well for me. Again bringing the yapping figiters into the activity helped engage them and avoid situations that would otherwise spiral out of control.

Clear repercussions for misbehavior that you strictly enforce is the other side of the equation.

I remember that we all liked the funniest teacher the most. So make sure to crack a joke everynow and then. Also you could bribe them with something they would want I.e. less work today if they pay attention and are quiet. Remember that punishment may be necessary sometimes if they arent changing. Good luck :)

Quiet music, low light level, lots of help.

Behavior management 101. You already know the answer I suspect. You just are going to have the one in ten difficult year. Reward system-some. Consistency-a must. Love and respect-a given. Good luck to you. I teach preschool special needs. As @YARNLADY says keep things low key as long as you can manage it, then maybe let them rage on as long as nobody gets hurt.

Children at that age are very hyper and very inquisitive. This is because their synaptic nerve connections in the brain are continuously growing. We call this the window of opportunity and this continues to happen until the age of ten. After ten however, the nerve endings begin to decrease. To make life easy for you, you should try to persuade them with a gift or lay down some strict rules to get them to respect you. Try to be motivating with the use of the gifts, that should work.

I must say when I was a kid . I love making Art. I got to put it on the frig. Kids love to color and make things out of their hands.