The other day, I happened upon Teacher Tom’s blog. What a great resource! I’ve enjoyed reading about the adventures in Teacher Tom’s preschool and am quite interested in his educational philosophies and how he manages his cooperative preschool–very cool stuff!

Anyway, the other day, he wrote about the song he sings to signal to the children that it’s time to clean up. He also talks about encouraging a sense of ownership and responsibility by giving children the time and space to clean up the classroom–a very Montessori kind of thing–but that is a post for another day. What I want to talk about today is using songs to transition between activities in the classroom, whether at a preschool or in your own home.

Songs can be a great way to send signals to kids like, “Hey! Check this out, guys! We’re doing something new over here! Don’t you want to come check it out?” A cheerful song with a strong beat can go a long ways in getting kids eager and willing. Two songs that I use on a daily basis around here are “Clean Up! Clean Up!” and “It’s Calendar Time!” Notice the exclamation marks–I guess the songs I sing tend to be pretty chipper. After all, I am trying to get the kids excited about something.

Our clean up song is one that I’m sure many parents are familiar with. Oh no. I just Googled the lyrics and realized that it’s a–gasp!–Barney song! I promise, I had no idea. Just pretend you didn’t read that.

Here are the lyrics:

Clean up, clean up,

Everybody, Everywhere!

Clean up, clean up,

Everybody do their share!

It’s so contagious, I should have guessed it was a Barney song. Oh well, at least this one is contagious in a good way. Even my 17 month-old sings his own little version of it. I use this song whenever I’d like the kids to join me in, you guessed it, cleaning up. Here’s why I like it: I can signal to them that something needs to be cleaned up, but it sounds so much nicer when the signal comes in the form of a song rather than nagging comments. I liked to think it says, “Guess what, guys? I’m over here with this mess and look how much fun I’m having cleaning up!” And it actually seems to work! Whenever I start singing the song, at least one of them will come join in the cleaning fun.

Another song I use is one of my own creation. I’ve titled it, “It’s Calendar Time!” Calendar Time is when we all gather around the–wait for it…–calendar. We sing songs, say a prayer, talk about what day it is and the weather outside and what day tomorrow will be. We also read books and talk about what we will do that day. It’s a nice gathering moment and helps us get started on the right foot.

For a while, I found it a bit difficult to get the kids over for Calendar Time. They’d be playing and I’d say, “Okay, guys! It’s time for Calendar Time!” But nothing would happen. Some days, I’d have to kind of coerce them over. So, with Teacher Tom’s song for inspiration, I decided to try singing to signal Calendar Time. Here’s the little ditty I came up with. Be warned, it’s also pretty contagious.

It’s Calendar Time (to the tune of The Three Little Kittens if you know that one)

It’s Calendar Time, it’s Calendar Time!

Won’t you come sit by me?

We’ll sing some songs and read a book

and learn the days of the week.

Brilliant, eh?

But guess what? It actually works! The kids love to sing it with me and they happily come over to the calendar when I start the song. I think it’s just more fun this way and it gets them excited.

What songs do you use to signal transitions? I’d love to hear what you guys are doing.

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