Behavior Management Games

                      

So, you and your class of littles just arrived in the auditorium for pictures. They've mostly kept bows in their hair and dirt off their clothes. You're asked to wait just a few minutes for the classes in front of you to finish with their portraits. And... a few minutes turns into 20. God bless you if your class is able to sit quietly on the ground and wait. I've never had that class, but fingers crossed! Or not, because those would be robot children. In these moments, I find it immensely helpful to have an arsenal of behavior games to keep your students occupied.  In this post, I'm going to share some of my favorite behavior management games with you.

Magic Turtle

This is really a game of poses and it works best when students are at their tables/desks. I ask them to do a variety of poses and end with "Magic Turtle," which is really just them putting their head on the desk for a few seconds. It's a great way to get the whole class quiet and listening without asking them 28 times to please "Be quiet and listen!" Before I tell them to get into "Magic Turtle," I tell them to do other poses like jazz hands, shark, and smile. You can add as many poses as you want. Just make sure your students know that they are silent poses. 

King and Queen

I have to give my teacher bestie, Stefanie, the credit for this one. I usually use this during hallway time/bathroom breaks. Everyday I pick a King and Queen of Quiet. I use a ticket system in my room as a behavior incentive, so the King and Queen each get a ticket, but I also let the King and Queen pick a Prince and Princess later in the day, which is a big motivator for them (King picks Princess, Queen picks Prince). 

Quiet Mouse Still Mouse

This is a great game when you are in the hallway or during wait times. I may have used this game to quiet our entire Kindergarten student population during a field trip. So while the kids are quiet you say... "Quiet mouse, still mouse, quiet as can be (clap twice). Quiet mouse, still mouse one, two, freeze (clap once)!" The kids freeze and you pick the quietest mouse. I usually make them wait a minute before I pick the quietest student. I then let the student I pick lead the chant and pick the next student and the game repeats.     

Mystery Walker

Before we leave the classroom to go somewhere, I often pick a "Mystery Walker." I tell my students that I'm going to watch this person all the way to our destination and if this person stays quiet, I will tell the kids who I picked. Sometimes, if my class gets noisy during this game, I tell them that the Mystery Walker talked and now I need to pick a new one (never telling them who the original was). Iff you feel like you've been overlooking a student or that a student needs some encouragement, this is a great time to keep an eye on them and reward them for being quiet.  

Statue

During this game, students have to act like the statue of something the teacher calls out (lion, bear, cat, dog, football player, teacher, baby etc). There are 2 options I've used with this game: the students stay quiet the whole time, or they get a couple of seconds to make the sounds the statue would make but need to be quiet when I say, "STATUE!"