These tools are perfect to get the attention of large groups, particularly during the start of a meeting or activity.

• Establish a “quiet” sign. Many Girl Scout troops use either the promise sign or a raised hand. Whenever an adult member uses the sign, girls must also do the sign and be quiet until everyone is quiet. Practice a few times when you introduce it.
• An adult raises their hand and calls out, “When the hand goes up…” and girls answer, “…the mouth goes shut!” You may need to repeat a couple times until everyone is quiet.
• The adult tosses a ball in the air. While the ball is in the air, everyone screams. When the ball is in the adult’s hand, everyone is quiet. You can make this scream/quiet transition very fun. Fake a toss, drop the ball, etc. It’s a little game before you start.
• One adult calls out across the group, “Hey, Steph!” Steph responds, “Hey, Alice!” “Hey, Steph, is it really loud in here?” “It sure is…” and so on. You can improvise as you see fit. But the girls will quiet down pretty quickly as they watch the dialogue with fascination.
• Talking softly in a stage whisper with an instruction. A popular one is “if you can hear my voice, clap once” and increasing the clapping each time. You could also try, “if you can hear my voice, put your hands on your head, put your hands on your toes, touch your nose” and so on. Be sure to keep your voice relatively quiet.
• Clapping in a pattern and waiting to see who follows. Repeat with new patterns until everyone has joined in.
• Snapping until everyone is snapping their fingers.
• Holding up your hand and starting a countdown.
• Agree on a fun call and response chant to get their attention. Like, “Hey Girl Scouts!”, and they respond, “Hey, What?”. They could even make their own silly version.