Hi everyone, I'll be teaching first grade next year, and am trying to nail down a mental game plan on classroom management strategies for myself. In terms of attention getters, what works for you? I've used the "Gimme Five" where I just count down from five and that worked great for middle school kids, but I want to see what else works.
I use "class, class, yes, yes" and clapping out a rythym for students to repeat. I plan to use chimes next year as I think my voice gets frowned out in busy chatter. I've heard some students need a different frequency to notice.
Visual stimuli Maybe something visual at the same time? Some students and some teachers (me) respond more to visual stimuli than to sound.
I use a timer to signal clean up time after an activity. It's from lakeshore and it starts out slow, then speeds up. I trained my kiddos that they needed to be done cleaning up, standing with their hands on their head by the time it was done. It worked wonders and really helped with transitions. I also do a lot of songs for getting them to sit on the carpet in time or to line up. I teach kindergarten.
As a sub I have seen a lot of different attention getters. - bell or windchimes (just teach students to show active listening when they hear them) - music box (wind it up in the morning and open it throughout the day when kids need to show attention. Don't close it until they are all listening. IF there is music left at the end of the day, the class gets a point/prize/whatever.) - timer (I like that it gives kids an idea of how much time they have, but I hate the beeping...) - zero noise signal (the one my district uses most often is to simply raise your hand silently. Every student who sees you raises your hand also raises his/her hand silently. The rule is that nobody, not even the teacher, may speak when the zero noise signal is being used.) - special spot (I actually saw this in a teaching video; the teacher marked a special place in the front of the room, and whenever he walked to that place students knew it was time to show attention.) - call and respond I love call and respond because they're just so fun! If you google it you will find a million of them, but all there is to it is for the teacher to call out one half of the (introduced and practiced) phrase, and students respond with the other half. Some of them are coupled with physical response from the students, such as hands on the head to prevent fidgeting. Here are some examples" Teacher says "Snap, crackle, pop!"...kids say "Everybody stop!" and place hands on head. Ready to rock...ready to roll! Ready set...you bet! To infinity...and beyond! 1 2 3 eyes on me...1 2 eyes on you! Etc. Someone else mentioned songs. I have heard a couple. A favorite in kindergarten is "Clean-Up Robot" which you can find on Clean Video Search (or YouTube) and play during clean-up time. I would think that any song would work for any routine if you taught the kids what it signified.
Find out what they used last year in Kindergarten. My school uses Give me 5 school wide so when I get new students (also 1st grade) they already know that one! I don't even have to teach it because the new students just catch on. To summarize I'm just saying find out what they already know and maybe use it!
I mostly used the clap/clap back method. Pinterest has lots of the chants that you can pin and try out.
I found most of them online and a few from Dr. Jean. Pinterest is my friend for finding songs and chants. I also start each morning out with a morning meeting where we sing a song about our rules, and about how to sit on the carpet.
