If you must eat in the classroom, these are the ways to do it: be quiet, clean up after yourself, eat quickly, don’t talk, hide it, open wrappers before class, eat small foods, and don’t eat smelly foods.

What To Eat

When eating in class, avoid crunchy and loud foods. Eat small foods that are easy to pop in your mouth and eat quickly and quietly. If you can, open your food wrappers before class so that you don’t make the whole class look at you because you are crinkling a loud wrapper. Also, take bites when the teacher is not looking to avoid being caught.

Some examples of bad foods to eat in class are:

• Popcorn
• Chips
• Trail Mix, or nuts
• Most Vegetables

Some foods to lean towards when eating in class include:

• Gummies
• Dried Fruit
• Jerkey
• Chewy Granola Bars

How To Hide It

There are many effective and non-effective ways to hide snacking in the classroom. I am going to show you some of my favorites.

A good way to hide a small snack is hiding it in your sleeve, this works very well for granola bars. Either break off a piece when the teacher is not looking and pop it in your mouth quickly, or pretend that you are coughing or sneezing and discreetly take a small bite.

Another way to hide your snack is by keeping it in your backpack. Before class, open your snack’s wrapper. Then put it on something in your backpack that is easily reachable. Once you get into class, lay your backpack on the ground next to your chair or under the desk. Whenever you want a bite, just reach into your bag like you’re grabbing something and pull out a bite of your snack! 

A less obvious way to hide your snack from the teacher is to put it under your notebook or binder. When you want some of your snack, slide it out from under your notebook and tear off a piece. When you are done with your snack, do not get up to throw it away, because that will alert the teacher. Just wait until the end of class, then take your notebook with the wrapper and stealthily drop it into the trash can on the way out.

What To Do If You Are Caught

If you get caught eating, don’t act up. Apologize, because, after all, you were breaking school policy. The most important thing is to never lie. If you lie, there is a chance that your teacher will see through the lie and you will be in even more trouble than the likely warning. 

Another thing to understand is that there are different standards of eating in class depending on the teacher. If a teacher is strict about all the policies in McAuliffe, stray on the safe side and only snack when needed. On the flip side, if they are tolerant, then just be careful and not excessive.

How To Clean Up Efficiently

When eating in the classroom it is important to clean up after yourself, these are some tips that will help you not get caught because there are crumbs on your desk. When you are done eating, you have to clean up, otherwise you will get caught. These are some of the things you have to look out for:

• Crumbs
• Grease Stains
• Wrappers

Before class, go into the bathroom and grab a paper towel, then wet it. Put it in your backpack, then once you are done eating pull it out of your backpack (it’s okay if it is not very wet anymore) and wipe down your whole desk with it, if your teacher asks what you are doing, then just say you are cleaning your desk because it’s dirty (you are not lying). Before you do this, look for wrappers you may have left out and make sure to look on the ground too! Right before you leave, wipe your desk with your hand to get any leftover crumbs (wipe them into your hand, not onto the ground).