Transitions

After working with the little first graders for quite some time now, I have realized how important transitions are throughout any given day.  Transitions not only give the students a brain break, but they also help ease the students into the next planned activity much more smoothly.  When students are so young, they cannot just finish with math, sit on the carpet, and then start listening to a science talk.  Instead, they need to finish math, do a little energizing transitional activity, and then sit down to start talking about science.  A little break (that is educational but fun) between each planned activity contributes to a successful day.

Despite the need for transitions in my classroom, I have also realized how hard it is to do them.  You do not want a transition that energizes the students too much or they become overstimulated and cannot focus well on the next planned activity.  On the other hand, you do not want a boring transition activity either because otherwise students do not feel like they are getting a break from “thinking”.  Furthermore, because you need many different transition activities throughout any given day—especially ones that are educational—it can be hard to know enough of them.  After teaching these first graders, I have realized that I need to research more transition activities for young students.  It is an area of education that I would like to grow in throughout my future.  As a type of professional development for myself, I want to make a list of transitional songs and activities so that when I need one, I can just look at the list and pick one out.  I think this list will be helpful for any future classroom I am in.

One transition that my students LOVE right now is the transitional “Color Song”  It goes like this:

[Teacher shouts out a color]
Red!
Red is the color I see,
If you’re wearing red, stand up and show me.
Stand up!  Turn around!  Show me your red!  And sit back down!

Students who are wearing the specified color must stand up, spin in a circle, point to the color on their clothes, and then sit back down.  It is the most fun when you do a few rounds of this song! 

This transition song has been a great way to teach my English Language Learners the colors in English.  They ask me many times a day if they can sing this song, so we sing it a lot!

If you have any other transition activities, let me know! J

 

The color poster we use when we sing the song!