Beating the lunchtime crazies

Lunch has been a very challenging time for me in the classroom. I'm usually very stressed out and frustrated by the end of lunch hour and I am forever trying to find the system that works best for everyone. Last week I changed things up a bit and I wanted to share this new system. Our kindies go out for recess first and then come inside and eat lunch. They take off all their gear, grab their lunch bags and come find their seat. I have laminated name tags that I made that tell the children where they are sitting. I do have a seating plan so usually they sit in the same place very day. So my kindies come in, eat lunch and they USED to finish lunch, out away their lunch bag and come in the class to play with a green toy at their desk. It was getting crazy, children kept leaving the room without permission, they were starting to okay all over the classroom, I was being stretched in all directions and it was getting frustrating. So I changed it up. NOW what they do is when they are I unfinished, I check their lunch to make sure they aren't pulling my chain and then they put their lunch bag underneath their chair (this way nobody has to leave the class during lunch hour). Once one person is finished, they get a bucket to play with. 

I have 5 tables in my classroom so when I put out their nametags, I also put a number on their table (1-5). That's the number bucket they will get that day. I named the buckets somewhat generically so I can easily change the contents once all the tables have had a turn. 

The reading bucket has books, the colouring bucket has colouring pages and crayons, the discovering bucket has search and find books, the creating bucket has paper and pencils, and the playing bucket has blocks. At the end of lunch, the children have to clean up their bucket and I come around to dismiss them to put their lunches away. So far this system has worked very well. A few are still going out into the hall at clean up time instead of waiting to be dismissed but other than that, this system is relatively stress free for me. 

Tomorrow I will be changing the contents of the buckets. The books will get some different books, colouring will get some new pictures, discovering I may put in search and find placemats instead of books, creating I think I will put in some writing paper (with a picture area and sentance area). And playing bucket I think I will put in the wooden puzzles.