behaviour managment a problem

[Mister]

Starting the lesson with a quick game the children enjoy may help to get them on your side, (this is obviously more a primary than a secondary strategy). It starts the lesson off in a positive way, it gets the children on your side, it shows them you're an OK person. Then promise them that if they work well & don't waste time in the lesson you'll finish with a quick game too. This gives them an incentive to work well FOR YOU, & you can reward those children who were really being good by giving them a prominant role in the game. Yes, OK, you'll lose about 10 minutes teaching/working time, but you'll probably lose more than that if their bad behaviour & baiting you becomes their game, seeing how they can wind you up!

Good games that may work with KS2 children include:
Heads down thumbs up
Simon says
clapping simon says
beat the teacher
20 questions
11s
hangman
... or any other games that the class may know.

Ofen a smile & public praise is all it takes, children love praise & attention, it makes them feel good. Housepoints & other merit systems are also useful. And there's always the regular classroom jobs, (taking/getting the register, giving out/collecting books, sending messages, etc) that are good immediate rewards. Other rewards can be things like being the first out to play. It's all down to being noticed & getting that attention for the RIGHT reasons.

You could try putting the names of the good children on the board, with the promise of a certificate at the end of the day if they're praised a number of times, keep a tally on the board that everyone can see. I have a wad of small certificates I made on my home computer that I can give out if there's no housepoints/merit system in place, young pupils like receiving these, they often tell me years later if I see them again that they've still got it.

If they're wasting time or being too noisy I sometimes count. I then say OK, if you play in worktime you work in playtime, I'm counting how much playtime you're having in the lesson, that's fair, isn't it? If they're noisy after that I count on from the number reached. At playtime you them count backwards from the number you reached, so they see it's going to waste THEIR time if they waste yours, & you keep them in until you've counted back. You can dismiss the good ones before the counting starts so the fairness is reinforced.

[NuttySupplier]

What's 11s?

[Mister]

11s explained.

It's a very simple elimination game. Arrange the childern in a circle round the room, standing is best. Children count up one at a time in turns, going up either by 1, 2 or 3. Whoever has to say 11 is out, & sits down. So, for example, the first child says 1 2 3, the next says 4 5 6, the next says 7 8 9, the next says 10. The next has to say 11, & is out. Then the remaining children realise they can control who is out if they think ahead. So they start going up by 1s or 2s more. As they're out gaps appear in the circle so you jump the gaps to those children who are still in. The winner is the last one remaining.

[NuttySupplier]

Oooooo! I like that one! I would be a great maths
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ter once they've done it a few times too... very strategic!! Thank you!

[Mister]

Yes, it is a good one, but it can be a bit of a hassle to arrange the children into a circle, they have to be reasonably well behaved first!

Beat the teacher is a lot easier. For that game they just stay in their seats. For that one you put a C & a T on the board. C stands for children (or class if they're too old to want to be called children!), & T stands for teacher.

You then ask for a number between 2 & 12. Then you ask for a question master & a scorer.

The question master then asks a tables question based on the times table of the number chosen. Without putting their hands up it's then a race between the class & you to say the right answer. The scorer marks the board with a tally mark for whoever is first. For younger classes you can give them a few seconds thinking time, for older ones you or they answer as soon as you can!

To keep discipline you can say if you have to tell the class to calm down or not shout they lose a point, (or you gain one if they've not scored yet).

After about 10 questions or so you can declare a winner, then choose a new question master & scorer & number & start again.

A variation if you have a few very quick pupils is to get those quick ones to stand at the front & call them experts. So the game is then beat the experts.


Does anyone else have any good games they use with their classes? If you know any I've not mentioned I'd love to learn them from you. Yes, I've had discipline problems at times too, but the class games are a good way to build a good relationship with a lively class.

[ruby_tuesday]

I play 11s a lot but have always called it Last One Standing. Its great for counting and practising any x table. I actually discovered it as 'Douze' to help learn French Numbers.

[Mister]

Yes, I guess lots of these games have different names, & variations. I like the idea of using it to practice tables, but I'd be wary of embarrasing the weaker pupils when you have a wide ability spread in the group.

I'm reminded of another circle game for older/more able pupils. This is Fizz Buzz. You start from 1 & go round the circle counting up one at a time, only when the number is divisble by 2 you say fizz, & when it's divisible by 5 you say buzz. If it's divisible by 2 and 5 you say fizzbuzz. This is another one to be used with caution, the advantage of 11s/last one standing is you don't actually have to be good at maths to play it!

[NuttySupplier]

My Y5s last year just loved quizzes... all the time! Girls v Boys v Miss. If they talked, points to me, same for shouting out, not knowing the answers, answering too slowly, scraping chairs, pic
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noses, bottom burps, and anything else I could make a rule up about on the spot to make them giggle!

[Mister]

Yes, quizzes are good. I'd do them more but I'm not organised enough to carry them with me, & not quick enough to make them up on the spot & keep the flow of questions going!

Talking of botty burps...

We had an assembly today & the children were noisy, including, much to my embarrassment, the class I was covering. A strict teacher got up & got them quiet, then when it was silent again this botty burp rang out round the hall.....

I have to admit I smiled, I couldn't help it! I just hope I wasn't the only adult in the room to do so or that may be black marks against my name in the future!

[ruby_tuesday]

I had a temper tantrum from a y4 right in the middle of my assembly this week, came in late and started yelling at everybody!

Never a dull moment!