I have students raise one finger as a signal they need to use the bathroom. If I shake my head no that means someone is already using it or I am giving very important directions. This eliminates being in the middle of something and being interrupted with "can I go to the bathroom?" No talking is needed on either of our parts.

I have dealt with this in a variety of ways. I do a read aloud that’s interesting and bathroom kids miss it (or not). Other times I give seatwork to class and if it’s not done, it goes home to be finished. Or I have decided to have some free time and those kiddos miss that. I have also had them go during a special, missing part of my prep but it’s worth it to put an end to this. Also I have kept track of # of times kids “need” to go and let their parents know. Maybe they have a medical problem.

I also think it gets better when weather turns cooler and they don’t drink so much.

Always better to let them go of course, but keep them responsible for the work.

I’m really struggling with my kids and the bathroom this year. Every time we come back to the classroom from anywhere (lunch, specials, recess, etc) about 15 kids ask to use the bathroom. Even during learning time, when one raises their hand to ask, basically half of the class will start asking. It’s never been this bad in previous years. We take two full class bathroom trips a day. We will come back and 5 minutes later kids are asking to go. For context, we do not have bathrooms in the classroom, we have a policy where we can’t tell students no or limit the number of times they go (ruling out anything related to bathroom tickets/coupons), and we can only send one child at a time. The “line” of kids waiting gets so bad I can’t even figure out who is next when someone new asks.