A free-to-try bouncy balls noise monitor for the classroom, and an alternative to bouncyballs.org with no subscription and no ads. Bouncy Balls turns your classroom's volume into something the children can see. Put it on the whiteboard and the balls sit calmly while the room is quiet — then bounce higher and higher as the noise builds, turning angry-red and flashing the screen when it tips over the line. It's a calm way to manage noise without saying a word: the class self-corrects because the balls tell them. Choose glossy balls, smileys or eyeballs, set how many, or load a saved class so every ball is a named pupil. The microphone only measures volume — nothing is ever recorded.
It works because it moves the feedback off you. A class that is asked to quieten down is responding to a teacher; a class watching the balls climb is responding to the room. The correction still happens, but nobody has been told off, and you have not had to stop teaching to do it.
That is also its limit. A noise meter is a mirror, not a rule — it shows a class how loud it is being, and it assumes they would rather not be. It will not settle a class that has decided not to settle, and it is not a behaviour system. As one more thing in the room alongside everything else you do, it earns its place. As the thing keeping order, it will let you down.
It measures volume and nothing else. The microphone reports how loud the room is, moment to moment, and that number is what moves the balls. No audio is recorded, stored or sent anywhere, and there is no transcript, because nothing is listening for words — only for level.
It is worth checking, and teachers are right to ask before putting anything with a microphone on the board. It is worth telling the children too. They behave differently around a microphone they think is recording them, and explaining that it only measures loudness usually removes the interest entirely.
Some classes work out that shouting makes the balls bounce higher, and the meter becomes the game. When that happens it is usually less a discipline problem than a design one — the tool has become the most interesting thing on the screen.
Three things help. Turn the sensitivity down, so the balls stop rewarding the loudest child in the room. Use it for a fixed stretch — the ten minutes of group work, the tidy-up — rather than leaving it up all lesson, because a permanent display stops being noticed and starts being played with. And put it away for a week if it has become the game. It recovers its novelty faster than you would expect.
Set it during a lesson that is going normally, not in an empty room. A classroom that reads as silent at eight in the morning reads as chaos at two in the afternoon with thirty children and a ventilation fan, so the baseline you want is the room as it sounds when it is working well.
Slide the sensitivity until the balls move gently at the volume you are happy with, and red only arrives at a level you would genuinely stop for. A meter that goes red at reasonable working noise teaches a class that the line is unreasonable, and they stop watching it.
The obvious use is group work, where the volume climbs slowly and nobody notices until it is too loud. It also suits the transitions — tidying up, coming in from break, packing away — where the noise is not misbehaviour but does need to come down.
Named balls change what it is. Load a saved class and every ball becomes a pupil, which turns a volume meter into something children watch for their own name. That cuts both ways: it is very engaging, and it also means a child can sit watching their own ball bounce, which is not always what you wanted.
Is Bouncy Balls free?
Yes — it's one of Sage Teachers' free-to-try classroom apps. Sign in and press Start.
Does it record my classroom?
No. The microphone is only used to measure how loud the room is, moment to moment — nothing is recorded, saved or sent anywhere.
Can the balls show my pupils' names?
Yes — load one of your saved classes and each ball becomes a named pupil bouncing around the screen.
How do I adjust it for my room?
Use the Sensitivity slider on the live screen to tune the meter to your classroom, and switch ball styles live with the Theme button.
What happens when the class gets too loud?
The balls bounce higher and turn angry-red, and past the line the whole screen flashes — so the class can see the volume without you saying a word.
Settling the class in other ways? The Whiteboard teaching screen has a noise meter widget alongside its timer and traffic light, Lesson Timer keeps activities on track, and Lofi Beats sets a calm working atmosphere.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, and part of the free-to-try classroom tools on Sage Teachers. Last checked August 2026.