Transitional Songs, Part Two

(Note: This is our second blog post on transitional songs. Our first blog post, entitled “Transitional Songs Part One,” was posted on September 23, 2013. Please scroll down this page to our earlier blog posts to find it, or simply click here. Thanks!)

In any children’s class, many activities are needed to keep students happy and motivated throughout the lesson. Transitional songs are a perfect way to signal to children that one activity is ending and another is beginning. A good transitional song also has other benefits:

It supports the natural rhythm and intonation of the phrase or sentence you are using.
The melody is quickly learned and recognized by students, so they move into action as soon as they hear it.
In most cases, children can be encouraged to sing along, building group cohesion as well as productive language skills.
Transitional songs soon become part of a classroom routine, giving students a sense of structure and making them feel secure during the lesson.

Today, for Part Two, we present a variety of transitional songs that help to make activities smooth and enjoyable for students.

1. Open Your Books

This song is a great way to motivate students to open their student books to the correct page.

Open your books. Please open your books. (gesture)

(Spoken) Turn to page _________.

(Write this page number on the board, or show the number with your fingers. Hold the book open to show the page to students, then check to be sure all students are ready.)

Open your books.

2. Let’s Make a Line

This transitional song quickly motivates children to form a line in the classroom, either for an activity or when they are preparing to leave the classroom.

(melody: Skip To My Lou)

Let’s make a line long and straight,

Let’s make a line long and straight.

3. Find a Friend

This is a great chant to use when students need to find a partner. Demonstrate this chant with one student first. Decide how students will show that they are partners. They can stand back-to-back, touch palms, sit facing each other knee-to-knee, etc.

Practice finding partners before you actually do your activity.

Find a friend, find a friend,

before I can count to ten.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9—— 10! Hooray!

4. Goodbye Children

This is a fun way to say goodbye to your students at the end of the lesson!

(melody: Good Night Ladies)

Good-bye children! Good-bye children!

Good-bye children! It’s time for you to go.

Clap your hands and walk along, walk along, walk along,

Clap your hands and walk along, I’ll see you very soon.

Good-bye children! Good-bye children!

Good-bye children! It’s time for you to go.

5. We Did It!

We did it! We did it! We did it today!

We did it! We did it! Hip hip hooray!

We did it! We did it! We did it today!

We did it! We did it! Hip hip hooray!

(Note: The following transitional songs can be found on our blog post entitled “Transitional Songs, Part One.” Please scroll down to our earlier blog posts to find these songs and the recordings for them, or simply click here.)

Let’s Make a Circle

Come and Sit In Front of Me

Cards Please

Happy teaching, everyone!!

Kathy and Chuck