Sit Still. Be Quiet.A Wiggle-Friendly™ bookThe launch text for the next self-regulation lesson on your calendar.
You're already running classroom guidance, small groups, lunch bunches, and individual sessions on regulation, body awareness, and feelings. Sit Still. Be Quiet. is a 5-minute read that earns its keep before you've even started the lesson — and the activity tucked inside is a regulation tool kids can carry home.
Five jobs in one read-aloud.
- Normalizes regulation. The kid being referred to you usually knows they're "the wiggly one." This book offers a story instead of a stigma.
- Names internal states. "Big energy" becomes a word kids can use. So does "ready body, ready brain."
- Models a tool. The Dinosaur Stomp is a contained activate-then-down-regulate cycle.
- Works for individual, small group, and classroom guidance. Same book, three different uses.
- Makes co-regulation visible. The freeze is led by the adult. Kids feel what it's like to settle alongside someone they trust.
Where you'd actually pull it off the shelf.
Classroom guidance lesson
Read it. Lead the Dinosaur Stomp. Debrief: what did your body feel like before? After the freeze? Pair with a Zones check-in chart.
Small group on body awareness
A 4-week unit can open with this book. Use it to introduce body-state vocabulary and a shared regulation tool.
Individual session
For a referred kid: read together, then ask "Are you ever a Ronald?" — opens the door to a conversation without labeling.
Crisis-room / sensory space
Keep a copy in a regulation room. The Dinosaur Stomp can help a dysregulated kid move through and back to baseline.
Teacher consultation
Hand teachers the book and the activity. It travels back to the classroom as a Tier 1 strategy that doesn't single anyone out.
Parent / family communication
Send the Dinosaur Stomp guide home. Gives families a tool that mirrors what's happening at school.
For your alignment-document worksheet.
ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors
Supports B-SMS 7, B-SMS 5, B-SMS 4 (self-discipline and self-control), and M 1.3.
CASEL Five Core Competencies
Primary: Self-Management. Secondary: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness.
Zones of Regulation™
Maps to yellow-zone awareness and the move back to green. Useful as a launch text for Zones units.
MTSS — Tier 1
A universally accessible classroom resource that lowers behavior referrals from "kid won't sit still" by giving teachers a tool to use first.
Polyvagal-informed practice
The activate-then-down-regulate arc mirrors a healthy nervous-system cycle.
UDL
Multiple means of engagement. Accessible without accommodations to participate.
What this book is and isn't, for clinical contexts.
It is
- A Tier 1 universal launch text.
- An affirming story that reduces stigma.
- A teaching frame for self-regulation vocabulary and tools.
- A bridge to deeper conversations with teachers, families, and OTs.
It isn't
- A diagnostic tool or evaluation instrument.
- A therapy substitute, IEP service, or 504 accommodation.
- A behaviorist compliance technique.
- A promise that any specific child will sit still afterward.
For your shelf next to Listening to My Body and the Zones lesson plan.
Buy the Book School / district ordersThe one-page lesson guide
The lesson, talk-about-it questions, words to notice and the Dinosaur Stomp steps on one printable page. Ready for circle time, a K–3 morning meeting, or library storytime.
⬇ Download the free guide (PDF)Read-aloud permission: Teachers, librarians and caregivers are welcome to read Sit Still. Be Quiet. aloud in classrooms, storytimes and live or virtual library programs. Please don't post full recordings online.
Who wrote itMeet Mr. Twisty
Chad Currin, better known as Mr. Twisty, is the son of an elementary school librarian and grew up in libraries. Today he's a storyteller and comedy magician who performs for kids at schools, libraries and festivals. He has watched thousands of wiggly kids up close, and he wrote this book for them.
🎩 Book Mr. Twisty for a visit
Raised in a library
Mr. Twisty (Chad Currin) is the son of an elementary school librarian. He grew up in libraries: reading stories, writing stories, reshelving books, and taking in everything a library had to offer. He has loved telling stories ever since.
On stage, his magic illustrates the stories he tells. His books are the stories that come from the rest of his life: the morning walks, the dogs, and the kids he meets along the way.
Magic on the stage. Stories on the page.