Freeze! With a little twist!

Need your kids attention?  Here is one of the many ways to grab their attention:

  I remember when I was a little kid, I used to love it when my teacher told us to freeze!  I always hoped secretly that I would be in one of those weird positions that made everyone laugh (yes, I was one of those students).  I might have even thrown myself into a position thinking no one would know that I wasn't naturally in that position when the teacher yelled that famous word!  A couple of years ago I had a class that just wouldn't freeze when I requested.  It used to get on my nerves sooooooo bad! I remember thinking I'd like to make this one child look up the definition to freeze and practice writing it 1,000,000 times just to spite him for spiting me (OF COURSE I DIDN'T).  Anyway, I remember complaining to a veteran teacher who gave me simple advice to cure the problem.  "Make it a contest!"  She told me that any time you want them to do something they don't really enjoy, make it a contest.  Simple enough!  I went back the next day and gave it a try.  I told them we were going to try something new (you always have to pump them up).  I was going to yell freeze and start counting.  We were going to see how long it took everyone to freeze.  We put the number of seconds it took the WHOLE class to freeze on the board.  Then we tried to beat our own record the next time I needed them to freeze!  HOLY COW!  IT WORKED!  After about 3 times I didn't even count past two.  The rest of the year they were planning the Freeze 123 game and I was just getting their attention.  Try it, they love it!

Freeze on.