At the beginning of the school year I group my students into teams of orange, blue, purple, yellow, green, and red. There are 4 - 5 students on a team. Each team is assigned a team captain who is responsible for helping with equipment, organizing their team, and reporting problems. Team captains take this responsibility to heart.

Anytime I need to group students I call out the "team colors." Teams have an order they are to line up to exit the gym. This has reduced shoving and arguements when lining up. I have colored vinyl tape on the floor for each team to line up on. An extra bonus was during Field Day. As students rotated to different stations they already knew what team they would be on (even with combined classes).

I rotate the captains every 6-9 weeks so all students have an opportunity to be a team captain.