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Lies We Tell Our Students

Are you ever so eager to manage your students’ behavior that you tell a little white lie to help them follow the rules?

My new school has security cameras installed in the hallways and my class has seen the monitor that shows all of the camera activity. They were FASCINATED by it. Ever the resourceful teacher, I used this newly acquired student-knowledge to my advantage. Instead of explaining that they are security cameras to help keep us safe, I dubbed them “principal cameras” and explained that the principal had the cameras installed to watch students in the hallway. In my defense, I don’t make it sound like a bad thing. Instead, it sounds something like “Mrs. M might be watching her cameras. Let’s show her our very best hallway walk.” That way, it becomes a lie to motivate my students to do the right thing, rather than a lie that implies that someone is waiting to punish anyone that gets out of line (so to speak).
little white lies teachers use in the classroom

I recently confessed this little venial sin of mine on the Kinder-Craze Facebook page and asked readers to share their own little white lies from the classroom. I’ll tell you one thing: TEACHERS ARE LIARS! I was cracking up as I read the responses. Here are a few of my favorites that you just want to add to your own repertoire of helpful white lies:

funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students
funny lies kindergarten teachers tell their students

What “little white lie” do you use in the classroom?

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Maria Gavin

Maria is a former kindergarten and first grade teacher, with 13 years of teaching experience. Her love and passion for all things early childhood is now fulfilled as a mom to two amazing kids. She loves sharing practical and creative tips and ideas that are perfect for young learners – in the classroom or at home!

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25 Responses

  1. I put “Santa” as a contact in my phone (actually just a short string of random numbers). Around Christmas, I’ll tell my kids that I’m going to call him to tell him if they’re good or not. I’ll pretend to call parents, too. One time the parent came in the second I hung up; the look on the child’s face was priceless!

  2. I teach older kids, but I bought an Iron Man decoration that was really a mailbox for Valentine cards and put it on my bookshelf. Some of the kids were convinced it had a camera hidden inside, I didn’t tell them any differently!

  3. I teach middle and high school math. I tell every class that they are my favorite because they are so smart or hard working or make me laugh. I use whatever is true about that class. Then I tell them not to tell anyone so they won’t feel bad. Some of the kids are onto me, but they seem to like it anyway.

  4. I teach preschool and tell my kids if they all fall asleep the Nap Fairy will visit them. My assistant and I have SO much fun when they actually all sleep (which is rare). We put a picture and a note from her (a random fairy off the internet) on the board and do different things each time. Once we poured glitter all over them and their rest mats. Another time we put stickers on their faces and hands. And my favorite time is when all we did was get the Halloween decorations out of the closet and set them on the table. We said they didn’t sleep long enough for the Nap Fairy to decorate, but she did leave them for us. The little girls will go up to her picture on the board and say “don’t you think she’s just beautiful?” It’s great!!

  5. I have a lap top that freezes occasionally when projecting videos. I tell my kids that it freezes up when it gets to noisy. They are super quiet during videos and say shhh . . . You’re going to freeze the movie.

  6. I work in a middle school and we had such a time with the girls kissing the bathroom mirrors to see their lipstick marks. I told a few of the girls that the custodian really gets tired of cleaning the mirrors with window cleaner so now he just dips the toilet brush in the toilets and scrubs the mirrors that way. It spread like wildfire! I have yet to see or hear of lipstick on the mirrors 🙂

  7. I have a pair of green elf socks. I told my kindergarten class that the elves watched them to see if they are being nice. They poke anyone getting ready to act up that the elves on my socks were watching and they had better be good.

  8. Love it! When I was student teaching 8th graders there was one day when my CT had a family emergency and couldn’t be at school and all the subs were unavailable, so I had to teach the whole day by myself. Of course I was panicked, so I told a little white lie to my kids that they couldn’t say anything to anyone, but it was tooooootally illegal for me to teach them by myself (Not really since the teacher next door could pretty much observe everything from his door and hear everything in our classroom). Didn’t have a single problem that day. Appealing to teenage rebellion!

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Hi, I'm Maria.

I’m a former kindergarten teacher turned work-from-home mom. I still love sharing ideas and resources to make teaching easier, so you can focus on what really matters in the classroom. When I’m not working on the blog, you’ll find me chasing kids around the house with a cold cup of coffee in my hand (some things never change even once you’re out of the classroom!)

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