Classrooms can be chaotic places, full of lots of children doing lots of different things at the same time. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on how the teacher structures the activities.
One of my favorite remembrances of classroom chaos happened during a culminating FOSS (science) kit activity for Balance and Motion. The students ‘figured out’ that if they merged every foam tray, we could send a marble all the way around the classroom. That meant taping the foam trays together, standing on desks (safely) and team work of adjusting the foam trays as the marble approached each new section. Of course that is when the principal walked in.
The energy level in the classroom was through the roof. Excitement was electric. Our team of classroom helpers were excited and encouraging students. Every student was engaged and an active part of the marble project. Our room was noisy but not disruptive; I had no intention of stopping the class until we ran out of ideas or the end of the day approached. As it turned out, the principal got involved as several students took her to various sites along the endless marble track and shared their ideas and adjustments. Who’d ever think a class of first and second graders could cope with all this activity!
The key was the set-up and the activities leading to this point. Weeks of exploring motion in small groups, working as teams to discover interesting facts about balance and motion. The culminating activity, complete with controlled chaos, became a natural step. Every child was invested, working as part of the team; they probably didn’t hear each other’s voices as they worked on their section of the project.
When the time ended, a simple flick of the lights, a brief bit of wait time started clean-up. A reminder to use inside voices sent the class to work. Within in 5-8 minutes, we’d returned the classroom to its usual configuration. Adult helpers stowed the foam trays and we settled down for a final discussion of what we observed/learned/enjoyed.
This activity would not be a good first-of-the-year project. Our classroom rules and expectations ere in place. Simple signals such as flicking the lights and using wait time were developed and used consistently before this project. We also used thumb up instead of hand waving and used think-pair-share and other quiet signals daily in the classroom. I think setting up those expectations early on and using them consistently allowed us to do the marble project and not fear the class would lose control (and the marble) in such a chaotic-appearing activity. Of course, I attribute much of our success to the fact that classroom assistants were there, involved and supervising every step of the way [insert my happy face!].