Sometimes I feel like the Wicked Witch of the East (Wizard of Oz), but that’s just part of teacher-life… I began the first boomwhacker lessons with the following warnings….

Anyone who whacks or taps anyone else, either on purpose or by accident, has their boomwhacker removed.

This provoked cries of outrage when I included “accidental boomwhackering” in this prohibition. But the children have to learn to be aware of what both ends of their boomwhacker is doing, otherwise, if they turn round without paying attention, the person next to them is going to be whacked. On the nose, in the eye, painfully. In the event, I was whacked (gently) by the uncoordinated child next to me, and just used my discretion to sort that situation out (none of the other children had noticed). And a “Known Individual” had his boomwhacker confiscated when he whacked the “Other Known Individual” sitting next to him. He was old enough to know better. I let him have it back after a suitable Time-out.

Keep your boomwhacker away from your face. Always. Do not use it as a microphone, loudspeaker or telescope.

Your mouth is where your lunch and your slobber has been; no-one else wants to come into contact with that. And if you are using your boomwhacker as a telescope, and someone accidentally knocks it, you are going to get a painful whack in the eye. Think about it!

Keep your feet off the boomwhackers.

This was mainly an issue when we were sitting on chairs; when we put them down on the floor between activities, some children had a tendency to roll them about with their feet. Well, the weather has been good, so their shoes weren’t muddy. This time. But it does tend to result in squashed boomwhackers.

There you go. I like to keep the rules to a minimum! I shall be going over the rules again next week. And the week after, no doubt…