Creative Classroom Management Part 1: Simple Tips and Tricks
Welcome to Part 1 of our Creative Classroom Management series!
I know what you’re thinking… But creative classroom management doesn’t have to be colourful, OBVIOUS, or TANGIBLE like yet another sticker chart. Putting your imagination into the smaller habits and routines of daily classroom life can help you heaps in achieving some decorum in your classroom.
1. Gesture and facial expression
Body language and facial expressions can often say so much more than we think, or intend, depending on how we use them. Using these creatively and intentionally can really benefit a class.
Simple examples are a wink 😉, a thumbs up 👍 or the OK hand gesture 👌. Utilising these as quick, subtle praises to individual students can be just the confirmation or pick-me-up a child needs. Knowing that you have noticed their particular behaviour or effort and acknowledged it makes them feel that little bit special and encourages them to continue working and/or behaving in that way.
Use exaggerated expressions instead of words. A shocking, widening of your eyes 😳 as you watch a child put the paintbrushes in the wrong place is a much more playful way of announcing ‘you’re doing the wrong thing, please correct it quickly.’
Act, don’t react. Use an exaggerated sad face 😔 over a genuinely angry face as you wait for the two chatterboxes to finally sit on the carpet. Even let out a pretend teary whine 😭 to get their attention. This will quietly get their attention whilst entertaining those already sat - and even causing them to do the calling over and telling off! - as opposed to you getting angry, shouting and completely disrupting any hope of a happy, warm atmosphere.
2. Class Geography
I love this term - stolen from one of my first mentors. It means noting your class’s placements, formations and which way they will face, and how often this changes to create the most effective learning environment. A class studying the jungle might have a day that looks like this:
| Looking at general pictures | walking around the room |
| Looking at specific pictures | circle, carpet, pass them around |
| Class discussion | cluster, carpet |
| Comprehension | desks |
| Acting a jungle journey | own spaces, on the spot, look at me |
| Personal accounts | cluster, carpet (1 student up at a time) |
| Story | cluster, carpet (face other way) |
| Writing task | desks |
The key is not to keep your class at any one place for too long!
Sometimes, staying in the same format is required. Note ‘Personal accounts’ and ‘Story’. They both take place as clusters on the carpet, but sitting there for too long will cause boredom, fidgeting and mini misbehaviours - use a simple trick of turning the class around on their bottoms giving them a new focus and a sense of a whole new environment.
Plan your desired placements ahead of time, and find your own vocabulary for these. (See mine below.) And remember - planning class geography acts as a guide. If a placement isn’t working in the moment, change it! You’ll be surprised how much simply moving can benefit your students too! Read more on the importance of moving in the next instalment of Creative Classroom Management: Brain Breaks.
My go-to Class Geography vocab:
Cluster
Own spaces
Desks
Circle (big/small)
Line(s)
Half and Half (half the class perfoming/explaining/presenting, the other half watching)
Groups
Sat/Stood
3. Music
A super simple one to finish - play some music! After a crazy lunch time or following a seriously loud bout of call and response or even just towards the end of the day, play some soft, quiet music to underscore your class working.
Whilst studies do not necessarily prove or disprove that listening to music while working increases learning specifically, there is a general understanding that the correct music can help calm students and reduce stress, anxiety or over-excitement levels. In turn, this can improve mood and motivation, and generally create a warm, supportive atmosphere.
In my experience, instrumental pieces, with a happy tone played quietly are the best pieces to use for Primary School students. There are tonnes to choose from on YouTube - classical music for kids or piano Disney tunes - but some of my go-tos are:
Relaxing Guitar Music for Children
That’s all for part 1! Tune in next week to catch Creative Classroom Management Part 2.
- Sarah