I came up with a great idea for controlling the volume of the class, which tied in with our topic on Sound but would work well in any classroom.

1. I made a dial out of silver card (a big circle with a segment cut out) then fastened it to a black sheet of sugar paper with a split pin.

2. I then made 3 labels with 'Shhh..' written in red, 'Quiet Talking' written in orange and 'Discussion' written in green. The labels were the same size and shape as the segment I cut out of the dial.

3. I then glued these labels onto the black paper so that when the dial turned, the different labels would show according to what noise level I wanted the classroom to be. I also added a plastic pot covered in tissue paper as a knob to turn the dial.

4. Then I put a big label called 'Class Volume Control' above the dial and placed a key to the different volume levels beneath.

This works really well and the children respond well to the volume control as it's placed in a prominent position so that they can all see it. I refer to it at the start of each activity and ask the children what volume they think it should be at.