Inside Voices - Guest Post from Teaching through Turbulence

Hello Everyone!  I am Heather from Teaching Through Turbulence.  I am excited to be guest blogging here today!

It is back to school time for me and just like every school year... I find out that the kids forget many things over the summer (or at least they pretend to forget)... and one of the major ones is:
How to use their inside voices.  Have you dealt with this?  It doesn't matter what grade you teach, you have to teach what levels of voices you expect in your room.... or at least I have.

I wanted to share some different ways for you to mix up how you teach inside voices this year.  Many people use the traffic light that changes colors based on sound.  I would absolutely love to have one of these, but I, as I am sure is true of many others, just do not have the budget to buy those.  So, here are some cheaper options:

There is the 6 inch voice, where only those that are 6 inches from your mouth should be able to hear you.  You can make this into a Math lesson with rulers!

You can use a visual for voice levels.  If you click on the picture, it will take you to the link that I found this picture on. I really like this one that incorporates colors, pictures, and numbers.  The one I use is a FREE one from Hands in Autism.  Click here to go download it for free.

There are also a couple different apps that you can use to teach inside voice.

Inside Voice is a *FREE* app that will send a programmable alarm when things get too loud.  It also shows the sound visually, as in the picture with the red and green lines.

Speak Up is a game for Speech that encourages kids to use their voice, but it can also be used to determine appropriate voice.  It is also *FREE*!






How do you work on Inside Voice in your classroom?

I hope these ideas help you as you start a new school year.  I would love for you to come over and visit me at my blog.  I blog about classroom management and differentiation for the most part.  I hope you will stop by, say hi, and maybe even stay around by following.  I am also on Facebook by clicking here.  Have a great start to your school year.