I love it when I see a class of students quietly parading down a school hallway. It’s such an accomplishment for both the teacher and students! Hopefully by this time of the school year students are falling into a pattern of lining up quickly and quietly; and then again maybe not! How do you encourage positive hallway behavior? What tips do you have for getting stude
nts to line up quickly and quietly? Please share!
- Standing in line is easy to do
- When you take care of only you!
- Feet are forward and hands to the side.
- Lips are closed. We walk with pride.
Happily,
Diane
I really appreciate this blog about hallway manners. We have preschooler’s that will be Kindergartners next year and I would like like for them to learn some manners sooner than later. Your site is always helpful:)
Our school has Blue Bird Bills (our school mascot is the Blue Bird). The student earn these when an adult working at the school (another teacher, etc.) sees them behaving appropriately in the hallway, cafeteria, bathrooms, etc. The students can then “buy” a ticket to an event the school has each month such as a movie, picnic outside, luau, etc. They also get treats at these events. It’s wonderful to see a student walking down the hallway with their finger to their lips in the shhhh position eagerly anticipating a Blue Bird Bill!
One of the best I have seen, is to have students put their thumbs through their belt loops. If they don’t have belt loops, then they fix their hands to their waist. The teacher I saw doing it, said it took three teachers to learn, and be corrected. By week four they did it automatically.
My Pre-K use a poem I saw in the MAILBOX. It works like a charm.
“My hands are down.
I do not talk.
I face the front.
I’m ready to walk.”
I have my prek class reach into the clouds andput a marshmellow in their mouth.
Then its hand on hips and a finger on lip.
We do something similar. The line leader says the line and then all the other students echo.
Feet are forward.
Hands to the side.
Mouth is closed.
We walk with pride.
Before we go out our Preschool classroom door into the hallway, we all say out loud, “Bubbles on lips, hands on hips.” This is a standard phrase in our school. The 3 Kindergarten classrooms say it several times throughout the day.
Here’s our hallway poem. We recite it everytime we leave the classroom.
My eyes are facing forward
My back is straight and tall,
My hands are at my side,
I’m ready for the hall.
We also have a “zero” voice level in the hall, so if I hear voices I will put my hand in the air, in the shape of a zero as a silent reminder.
I also find it helpful do have designated stopping points throughout the school. This way the line leader knows where to stop and wait, and I can keep an eye on the rest of the class 🙂
With my pre-kindergarten class, I sing:
1,2,3 Eyes on me.
4,5,6 Finger on lips.
7,8,9 Make a straight line.
10! Let the quiet walking begin!
🙂
I think that walking in a straight, quiet line is nice, but it’s not best practice. At my school, all grades (PreK-4th) have to walk with their hands behind their backs while staying in the third tile from the wall in a straight line.
Best practice would be for students to count, say letters and sounds, say rhyming words, etc. while walking down the hall. I understand that disturbing other classes could be an issue, but the noise wouldn’t have to be that loud. (And during state test time, we all take a different route to stay away from those testing classrooms, anyway.)
Why not make walking down the hall a learning experience?