Maintaining Order

Last year a teacher recommended that I have the children have assigned places in line. This was very successful last year and I have repeated this year. I have younger children this year and they learned their places without any problems. Wonderful! I also have assigned seats at the table and will ultimately have assigned spots during circle time (I am waiting to see where they land naturally and who I should separate). One thing new this year is a "Special Place" in the room. A veteran teacher suggested it to me and I LOVE it. I asked the children on the first day of school to go and find their special place in the room, away from other children. This place is where they go to read a book during bathroom breaks, for a quiet time in the afternoon or if the room is getting out of hand I can turn the lights off and ask the children to go to their special places. These are things that I wish someone would have told me about years ago!
*Note, the children will get a chance to be line leader, so the last child in line isn't always the caboose, nor is the first person always in the lead.