Lunch time at our school (Grades 1-5) is the same thing. When our children get too loud they have to raise their hands (and keep them raised) until it is quiet again. I do agree that being a lunch mom is extremely stressful and very much underappreciated BUT I also agree that our children do not deserve to be yelled at.
P.S. In response to Beckymonster's post --- WAY TOO FUNNY wish I could have been a fly on the wall that day. (hehe)
Our building has grades 1-3 with a total of 272 students. Each grade goes to lunch together. Our principal has a "Golden Lunch Tray Award". He painted 3 lunch trays gold & added 4 strips of velcro. Then he put velcro on 4 plastic forks. The students can talk quietly but if they get too loud they have a fork taken off of the tray for their grade. They compete with the other grades & whoever has a fork left at the end of the semester gets a treat, like a root beer float or special dessert with their lunch. Sounds corny, but it's working so far. The kids hate to lose a fork...
OUR SCHOOL HAS APPROXIMATELY 250 STUDENTS AND
WE STAGGER THE LUNCH TIMES. HALF OF THE STUDENTS HAVE LUNCH WHILE THE OTHER HALF HAS RECESS. IT SEEMS TO WORK PRETTY WELL.
ALSO, WE USE THE RED/GREEN LIGHT SYSTEM. IT WORKS OK. THE CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED TO TALK QUIETLY BUT IF THEY ARE LOUD, THEY ARE GIVEN 2 MINUTES OF NO TALKING. LATELY WE HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH THE KIDS NOT EATING LUNCH (BAGS AND HOT LUNCH). WE ARE LOOKING INTO THIS.
RECENTLY OUR PRINCIPAL IMPLEMENTED CLASSICAL MUSIC AT LUNCH. HE USES CDS THAT ARE PLAYED AT LUNCH. HE PURCHASED DISNEY MOVIE SONGS THAT HAVE MUSIC ONLY.
I hope I don't get blasted for this but...at our school of 375 kids on a good day we have only 3 lunch moms and the principal doing lunch duty...the principal and one mom supervise half of the kids on the playground while the other two moms are responsible for the kids eating in the lunch room. But, like I said that is on a good day...the majority of the time there is only one mom that watches over the kids while they eat...she is responsible for assisting the littles ones, making sure the kids don't talk so long that when lunch for them is over they don't pull the "but I'm not done yet" when the second set of kids are coming in to eat. People don't realize the stuff that their normally well mannered children try to pull on a lunch mom. We had one mom come to school to throw a hissy fit because her "perfect" daughter is never given enough time to eat her lunch and her daughter told her that the lunch moms won't let her eat...well that mom was asked to come in and view her daughter's lunchroom habits from the kitchen side and low and behold her little "angel" chatted with her friends even after being told she needed to eat...and her mom got to witness her child throwing food when the lunch mom wasn't looking...needless to say the concerned parent has not complained since. The kids do get out of control in the lunch room and I have seen it happen many times. We have strict lunch moms that the kids hate and cool lunch moms that the kids love...take a guess as to who is doing the supervising when things get out of control. I truly feel at least at our school that because their lunch hour is broken down into half of the time lunch and half of the time recess that the lunch room is not social time it is the time to eat! Socialization should be done at recess. Maybe if their were more people who would take on the VERY LOW PAYING job of being a lunch mom these schools would not have to be so strict...ours included...because the moms wouldn't be overwhelmed and totally stressed. I myself am not willing to do it that is why I don't feel I have the right to pass judgement on how their procedures are.
Two years ago, our principal implemented "Silent Lunch". The children are not allowed to talk AT ALL during lunch. His reasoning is that now they return to class calmly and quietly. Not only that, but the 4th grade teachers decided that their kids were still not quiet enough, so they seat them boy girl boy girl EVERY day!
