Cleaning Up/Tidying up Songs...

Hi Friends,

One thing you would notice if you were a fly on the wall, in my classroom, is that I use songs to teach just about everything.  We are always singing.  I have songs for routines,  songs for transitions, songs for reading strategies, songs for everything.

Some songs are ones that I have acquired over the years, from who-knows-where,  that I sing Acappela. (Not too nice on the ears of adults, however kids are much more accepting!)

Recently though, I have  fallen in love with Youtube for teacher songs.  I no longer need to sing in my tone-deaf voice, I just click play and listen/watch! (Of course, I like to sing-along too!)

Here are a few of my favorites for cleaning up... It is so much more fun to put on music and watch the kids get to work.  Your kids will be experts at tidying up and you'll be stress free.

Tip: show the video first and ask the students to come up with the expectations for what it will look like and sound like in the classroom.  Otherwise, your kiddos will just want to dance or try to see the video on your computer!

Songs are also great for cementing in concepts.  I love to start my units of inquiry, math inquiries, or any inquiry with a song as a provocation... I'll share more of those soon.

Favorite Educational Tune-sters:
Harry Kindergarten 
Dr. Jean  
Jack Hartmann

For Reading Strategies chants and songs, check out Reading Power!

Our class song for this year is ... Will.i.am's What I am!  I just love it.

We may just re-write the song a bit to include the IB PYP Learner Profiles...

Do you use songs in the classroom?  I'd love to hear how, comment below.  

Classroom Community

Sometimes it comes naturally and let's face it, other times we work all year at creating a positive atmosphere in our classrooms.  Well, this year, thanks to Ms. Durning-Leander at Second Grade is Splendid, I found a daily reflection sheet and adapted it to my class.  See her original post here.  Click on the link to see inside her Bee Binders.  I love the Bee Binder idea and have used this as well.  Check it out.

Daily Reflections.  So, why do I really like this?  One reason is that I have gotten very positive comments from parents.  They like knowing how their kids were in school.  I write both positive and constructive feedback for the students.  It is a great prompt for me to communicate more with the students and their parents about how the student's behavior meets or does not meet expectations.  Students get excited to see what I have written and some even write other types of comments back to me about things that are going on at home. 

I send these home each night in their Bee Binders and then collect them the following Monday.  I keep them as a record of communication with the parents and it definitely helps when it comes to report writing time! 

Secondly, when the students are on "slow down and think about it",  they write their own comment and reflect on what happened.  This really helps the student to take more responsibility for their behavior.

So, here it is for you to use and adapt as you like.  Next year, when I do this again, I will try to find a way to add in more PYP (Primary Years Program) language.  I would like to come up with a good way to include the learner profile and the PYP attitudes.

What do you think?  I would love to hear your comments!  If you do use this, I would love to hear or see how you have adapted it. Click the photo below.

My Daily Reflection