How to keep them quiet while they get ready for lunch!

Having 30 first graders get ready for lunch quietly has seemed like a nearly impossible task this year. We are very blessed at our school to have coatrooms....a small little room attached to our classroom where they put their backpacks and coats. It's wonderful! Except....when they get ready for lunch, they always think they can goof off and be noisy in there.

Until today.

My A-MAZING co-worker (and her students....they are clever!) came up with this idea that works like a charm!

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We read a book called Duck and Cover by Jackie Urbanovic.  It's about an alligator that is hiding from the zookeeper because the zoo said he had eaten a little girl's dog. (They thought it was a real dog....but it turned out to be a hot dog.)

While we got ready for lunch today, we played 'Zookeepers.' I picked 2 people to be the zookeepers. Everyone has to get ready for lunch (and line up) SUPER QUIETLY to avoid getting caught by the zookeeper. If they are noisy, the zookeeper taps them on the shoulder and they have to go sit at their desk. When the game is over, I write down the names of those who got 'caught' and they get to practice lining up quietly for 2 minutes during specialties. Most of my students were SILENT and the ones who got caught were not happy about it....so I'm confident they will be trying EXTRA hard tomorrow to avoid being caught again:)