Were You Listening?

“Alright, we are going to walk down the hall to Mrs. E’s room without talking.  We are going to have one finger on our lips and the other hand behind our backs.”

We start walking.  A few are whisper talking in the back, but I am not too concerned at the moment.

“I love how nicely Ryan is walking.  Luke is walking so quietly as well.  Most of my friends are walking so quietly and nicely.”

This quiets down the ones in the back.  We walk down to Mrs. E’s classroom without a problem. 
I knock on the door and open it.

“Hi, the kindergarteners made your class a card to thank them for showing us the pumpkin plants yesterday.”

“That is so nice!”

She comes over and takes the card and invites the kindergarteners in.  The second graders are excited.  Mrs. E reads off the names on the card.  She has a hard time reading some of them and mispronounces some.  The kindergarteners giggle.  I try not to.   

“Thank you so much for bringing us this card! We will hang it in our class so we can look at it.”

The kindergarteners smile and we make our way out of the classroom.

“Ok my friends; we are going to go to the bathroom and wash up for snack.  Put one finger on your lips and one hand behind your back.  Alright, let’s go”

They are a little noisier this time.  I continuously remind them that we are walking through the hall and we need to walk quietly.

“In and out of the bathroom my friends, let’s go. Quick and quiet.”

I send them in.

Some are quick, most are not quiet.

I remind them to be quick, and quiet. I also remind the ones in the hall to stop jumping around and hanging on one another.

“Do some of my friends not want snack?”

They quiet down.

Ms. P walks by us and goes into the classroom.  She had been making copies and such.

Ms. P comes back out of the classroom.

“Ms L, there are three students here in the classroom already eating snack, was that supposed to happen? “

I shake my head no.  I am confused as to how this happened.

Ms. P sends them back out.

As the rest of our friends finish in the bathroom, I talk to the three.

“Did I tell you guys to go into the classroom?”

They shake their heads.

“Why did you do it then?”

“I don’t know” two of them say.

“Did you not listen to the directions?”

“No.”

Sigh.

“You guys really need to work on listening.  I never said anything about go into the classroom and start eating your snack. You know not to go in there unless a teacher is there.”

They just look at me.

The rest of the class has finished in the bathroom.

I lead them into the classroom.

I look at Ms. P and shrug my shoulders.

She just smiles.

What can you do?