How do you get your class to quieten down?

[LauraPashley]

I teach mainly year 2 and am fed up saying "1 2 3 eyes on me"
Or clapping my hands! Both work but are getting boring - looking for some different ideas?
And yes I am aware it's saturday night , sorry!!

I have a little bell which I ring (Nursery).

We have a silent "fox" sign in the rest of the school which you do with your hand. As soon as the children see it they make the sign too and stop talking. It's amazing how quickly silence spreads.

Clap a pattern and they have to clap it back

Paddington stare?

Love the 'fox' sign! I'm imagining 200 children with their hands making 'pointy ears' eyeing the nearest bin...

What about having some laminated pictures of different poses. When you hold it up they have to stand in the position?

Have a puppet appear when you want quiet.

Hold your hands up and wiggle your fingers. Keep wiggling until everyone is silently wiggling back at you.

DS 2's teacher has a bongo drum

I used to have a colleague (in Primary) who would simply say to the class 'open your mouths'.

Silence, and all attention on her waiting for her to say you may close your mouths! ....... this was a few decades ago though!

I do 'do this , do this' with lots of different actions for them to copy. Do it in silence and they quickly start concentrating on copying you.

I clap a pattern or sing a song

Charlies - the fox sign even works in a full school assembly of 350 children!

I like it because you don't have to use your voice at all.

I count down, stand and wait. But I'm secondary. I'm not proud of it, but I have been known to slam the door for my proper bonkers classes.

I raise my arm for quiet, and they follow suit...

I find standing and waiting the best, although sometimes I have to wait a bit. I look pointedly at the clock and tap my foot whilst waiting.

Failing that I whack the desk with a hammer. That always works!

I have a Mr Zippy soft toy. When I hold him up with his mouth shut then it tells them to be quiet.

I count down from 5.

I also do hands on heads, hands on shoulders, fold your arms. fingers on lips routine too.

Sometimes I write a message or instructions on the whiteboard so I don't have to say anything.

When I start getting desperate on a wet play day I might very quietly tap my whiteboard pen on my desk/board till everyone is quiet. I sit with my finger on my lips whilst I do it.

Oh thank you everybody! Do NO teachers go out on a Saturday then?!

I am laughing over the fox sign - what do you actually do with your hand?!

Thinking about it, I do the hand up thing too, I also have a squeezy whistle which stops them pretty quickly! I suppose the key is just varying it. Might go to the music cupboard and find something that makes a funny noise!

Your index finger and little finger stick up in the air like ears.
Your second and third fingers curve down from the knuckle to touch your thumb which is curled under your hand.

Like this....

Go on Laura - try the fox sign at school on Monday and report back. The key thing is that the children have to make the sign back at you when they stop talking.

I used to whisper. One child would notice and try and hear what I was saying so shush the person beside them and so on. It was funny to watch happen.

We Shake a tambourine. That's stop and lips together. I want to try the fox sign though!!

The fox will take over the world!

A supply teacher in DD's school last week was using a maraca, rather than the clapping a pattern that is standard in the school, which was very effective.

When I was at school we used to all put our hands up. The teacher does it first and then everyone else notices. Similar to fox sign although fox sign less confusing probably.

I'm secondary. I tell them to be quiet. Usually it works.

I was thinking the same evil twins, would never have the energy for all this primary teaching.

I say stop talking, they do, we start learning.

I have a rain stick. If they are all quiet before it's run through they win. If they are still talking when it'd finished I win. The advantage is that I can vary the speed it goes through at by the way I tilt it. Lots of them now go quiet when they see me pick it up. If they are REALLY noisy I get my PE whistle out - they hater blowing it indoors so that's enough to quieten them normally - perhaps with a short blast to focus them to start with. I do lots of counting down 54321. And above all, huge amounts of passive-agressive "isn't Sophie sitting nicely - I wonder who else can sit as nicely as her" etc wtc etc. When I moved to KS1 I was amazed how effective it was - wouldn't have made any difference at all in year 6!!

Oh DS' nursery teacher used to do that. I don't think it's passive aggressive when you're dealing with under 8 year olds. It's just showing them what they're supposed to be doing, whereas saying "Sit properly" assumes that they know what "properly" is and how to do it.