Setting up a kindergarten classroom at the beginning of the year can be an exciting, yet overwhelming. Whether you are a student teacher, or this is your last year teaching elementary school, I'm here to share
I posted about these songs about a year ago on my Instagram feed and so many of you asked if I would be putting these in my TPT shop to sell. At the time, we had only written three, and I just didn't feel like that was enough to make a whole resource with. Since then, I have been working on writing new transition songs that are sung to some of our kids' favorite tunes! Singing CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SONGS AND CHANTS during transitions makes moving from one thing or place to another almost seamless. Songs and chants keep students engaged, focused, and excited to learn, which in turn will save valuable instruction time. It also helps eliminate unwanted behaviors by giving your students the structure, consistency, and support they need. Most of the songs included are parodies of popular songs most kids will know. The words have been changed to help students transition in a positive manner. I printed the songs on cardstock and laminated them. I used a binder ring to attach the set together to hang on my board for easy access. There are also three different color options included. :) Let's go through a little breakdown of when and why we sing each of these songs: The Carpet: We sing this when it's time to transition to the carpet. I start they song, they join in. They have to be on the carpet in their assigned spots by the end of the song. Works like a charm every single time! I even added in some little hand motions that end the song with their hands in their laps. All I Do Is Freeze: We mostly use this when students are working in groups or with a partner. Sometimes, I need them to stop what they are doing, so that I can give them a direction or clear something up. It's a great way to get their attention! Clean Up Chant: This one is pretty self-explanatory. I do not instruct them when it's time to clean up; I just start the chant. You may want to add a timer to it afterwards if you need them cleaned up in a certain amount of time. Let's Line Up: Will kids ever get over Frozen? Probably not. If yours are still obsessed, too, they will love this line up chant. It gets them lined up quickly and without distractions, which saves so much time! Back to My Seat: We sing this when we transition from the carpet to their seats. We usually sing it a couple of times to give them plenty of time to make it to their seats. It's a really quick song! Partner Up: This song probably takes the most practice. Anytime you need students to get with their partner, you can sing this song. It also reminds them what to do when they are with their partner. Learning Math is Awesome: Sing this song to signal that it's time to begin math. I can guarantee it will get stuck in your head afterwards. Sorry. We Can't Stop Reading: This song can be used to kick off your reading block each day. It gets them excited about books and where those stories will take them! Quiet Time: I may or may not have sung this one the most. It works so well! I sing it in a calm, quiet voice, in which students will mirror. It immediately calms the room. Sing it a couple of times if needed! See!: I had to incorporate some Taylor Swift in these songs. We want students to be proud to share their thinking and comfortable talking with a partner. We also want their partners to be respectful and value what they are saying. This song is great to sing before students share with a partner or to close out a lesson by sharing what they learned or took away from the lesson. I just added some NEW songs!!! Like It Was: This is another clean up song. You could sing this one at the end of centers. It's really good about reminding students to put everything back in its place. Good For You: This is a song that you can sing as a class to celebrate someone! Maybe someone had a really great idea or accomplished something amazing, you can sing this to pump them up! We're Amazing: I am all about incorporating mindfulness into our day, so I knew I needed to create a song that encompassed that. This is another one that is going to take some practice to get down, but you can always display it as you sing. Some of the songs might take lots of practice to get down! But don't give up! After you sing it over and over, you will eventually get it. You will sing them to the tune of the chorus from the songs. I have added links to the actual songs in the PDFs. You just click the blue arrow at the bottom of the page. Always check these first NOT in the presence of students. I have gone through them to make sure they are safe, but you never know when things can change. A few of these parodies are straight from my students. I asked them what songs they wanted me to write transition songs for, and these are what we came up with. This group in particular had difficulty this year with transitions because they were all best of friends and LOVED to talk, which in turn got them distracted. I LOVED that about them, but we were losing valuable time trying to get refocused. Once I introduced a song or chant for them to do while transitioning, the difference was crazy! It keeps your learning environment positive, too, which is super important. You can check out the resource by clicking HERE or on any of the images in the post. Let me know how your students do with these songs or if you need another song added! I love your feedback! Happy transitioning!
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Reading fluency is so important for our early readers to eventually ensure comprehension. Strong letter sound fluency equips students to decode CVC words effortlessly, fostering a smooth transition in their reading journey. While readiness varies among students, consistent practice significantly aids their decoding abilities. While I know for some students, it is developmental and there may be a readiness that they may not have, many students are able to and need that extra practice to help them with decoding and can empower students to decode CVC words effortlessly, facilitating a smoother reading journey. I have always compared fluency practice to running in my own life for my students. I would run half marathons and have to work up that stamina and "practice" every day to become a better runner. I noticed that many of my students, without given the practice, will just continue to struggle. How we practice fluency in kindergarten? As a kindergarten teacher, it was important for my students, especially those who were struggling to practice fluency to help them become better readers. Without providing them this opportunity, I knew many of them would not be practicing letter names or letter sounds at home. By practicing and having a resource in the classroom or sending a fluency resource home and explaining to parents the importance, I have seen tremendous gains for students. I always use a simple and easy practice for my students. I have used whole group, small group or with a partner or even sent home. I use fluency probes that are similar to AIMSweb or DIBBELS letter name and letter sound fluency. (A sample is included at the end of the post) Students are given a fluency probe based on the skill they are working on. We practice letter names and letter sounds using these probes and I also have them available for CVC words, nonsense words and onset and rime. Although I feel "practicing" nonsense words may not be best for some students, for other it may help them become more successful and give us a better picture of where they are as a reader. As we know, there are a limited number of CVC words that students do read and a lot of times, they just have regular CVC words memorized from kindergarten stories and work. To assess a students true ability to decode, this is why we sometimes switch to nonsense words. My strongest readers, we always able to decode these nonsense words without struggle and were able to just read them as words, since they have such strong phonics skills. Classroom Use In my classroom, I copy all of the probes in advance and have them bound. The resource has 14 different probes available and I will have them all ready for the whole year. This then becomes a resource I use for the whole year in my students hands that we often use. I copy all 4 probes with my students: letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words, week by week. Usually before Christmas, I will use onset and rime instead of CVC words. In the classroom, I have the students use the same probe for the week. We will sometimes do it whole group or in small groups and set a timer for one minute. Students use a different color crayon each day and just circle the letter that they stopped on (most of the students are usually pretty honest about this. ) They then work to do better the next day. While I don't do whole group practice every day, I often will have students practice close to Aimsweb testing so everyone is ready. In my class, I was also required to progress monitor my students and we would graph their results monthly when I progress monitored as a way of students tracking their data which was stored in the fluency booklet. Partner Practice I may also use with resource for partner practice for students. Once my students understand how to practice their fluency, I would also sometimes have students partner up with each other to practice. Although this partner practice will not work for all students and the students who struggle the most will be practicing with me, this works really well for most students and they love it. I usually use sand timer (affiliate link) for this which are one minute each students has a probe and one student will monitor (like I would for errors etc) while the other student practices. Take Home Fluency Practice Another amazing way to use this resource is to copy and send home with students based on what they are working on, especially for my students who are struggling. I usually send it with a letter about the importance of practicing at home and asking parents to set a timer for one minute and record where students stop. It is amazing to see the growth that so many students will make with that little extra practice! I usually will model how to do this at conferences to work with parents as a team. I have a freebie of one week of letter name, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words available in my TPT store with a link at the end of the post. This is easy to copy and send home to parents over breaks or if a student is struggling and needs a little more practice. In my Fluency Packet there are 12 additional weeks of letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words with graphs for students to track progress available as well. I always made little books for my students and we would work on a new probe every week. You can find my fluency packet here, with everything you need to help your students become more successful readers. You can also find my one week freebie here: Free Fluency Practice
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Set goals, track progress and celebrate success! I will email you this chart for FREE , plus you can instantly access our entire freebie library.
Happy November, teacher friends! I love this season so much in the classroom! You can really feel that the breaks are so close and Christmas is in the air! Sometimes, along with that comes the need for more redirection because students can sense it, too. That's when I pull out a classroom behavior management game to get us back on track. The goal of these games is to take students from being extrinsically motivated to intrinsically motivated. I want them to make the right choice because it's the right thing to do and not just for a prize. How you, as the teacher, approach that makes all the difference and sets the tone. They need a good amount of positive feedback when playing these games for them to be successful, such as, "I noticed how quickly and quietly you transitioned from the carpet to your seat." You can then ask a student to add a game piece to the board. If you have strong routines and a classroom management system in place, I promise that you will see a noticeable difference in the way your classroom runs with my Classroom Management Games. I wanted to make the prizes simple and free, so I always post this list as a reminder for me. I will pick maybe three and have students vote on what they want to work towards. This gives them a goal to strive for. We also go over expectations for the game and the specific ways they can earn a game piece. Each game will focus on a specific behavior. Once we get that behavior or routine down, we move onto a different game. Transitions are something I am always working on, so I made this one, Transitions are as Easy as Pie. When students exhibit a quick, quiet, and smooth transition, they get to add a piece of pie to the game board. Once the pie is built, they earn the reward. Some groups tattle more than others, so it's up to you on whether or not you use this game. The group from this year tattled fairly frequently, so I would have definitely used this game! Students can earn a piece by effectively solving problems amongst themselves. I earn a piece for tic tac toe if someone tattles. Be sure to go over what is a tattle and what needs to be brought to the teacher. Good manners is so important to me. I want my students to display good manners throughout the building and to be models for others. When they get a compliment for having good manners, such as in the cafeteria, they earn a dish for the Thanksgiving table. This game really gets them thinking about how they act inside and outside of the classroom. Your definition of goodness might be different than mine, but for me, I am looking for students showing acts of kindness to other students and to adults at school. When they are caught showing goodness or kindness, they get to add a piece to the BUMP board. If they are exhibiting a less desirable behavior, I get to add a piece. You can bump each other's piece off the board; I don't bump them but they do bump me quite frequently. The goal is to get four in a row. I also let students tell me if someone is kind to them for a piece for the class. The turkey challenge is just a classic game of students vs. teacher. Choose the focus you need for your class, such as raising their hand or being engaged. Students are the turkeys and are trying to earn pieces for their side. If they are not exhibiting the desired behavior, the teacher earns a piece. Whoever has the most at the end of the lesson or day wins. I print each of these games on cardstock and laminate them. I use round Velcro dots from Amazon to attach the pieces to the game board. I display the game at the front of the room, so that students can have that visual of what they are working on and for. You can even ask your students what they think the class needs to work on to give them more ownership over the game. You can find the link to the games HERE or by clicking on any of the photos. An update to the December games is on the way, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks for stopping by!
