If you think getting students IN the room is chaotic, just wait ’til they’re all riled up from music class.
I don’t think I know a single music teacher who has perfectly mastered the handoff with the classroom teacher. The classroom teacher might come early or late, you might lose track of time, the kids are still singing and dancing. Suddenly, you’ve become the classroom teacher’s favorite person… not.
Here are a few ideas for getting kiddos out of your room with minimal chaos involved:
- Singing: End each class with a set song that your students can sing together. Even better if the lyrics build in instructions on how to get ready to leave. Alternatively, silently signal students who are demonstrating expectations to get in line while the class is still signing.
- Play a game: Sometimes you get everyone in line just fine… but no one shows up to take your class. Just like we talked about last week, the more you can engage their brains, the less students can use them to come up with the next most chaos-inducing thing to do with their best buddies. One of my student’s favorites was “You’ve Changed”. You can find the song and instructions in this post. Have fun!
- Call by color: My younger grades love getting called into the line based on colors or patterns on their clothing. Not only does it enforce these concepts for our littlest learners, but it also saves you time and keeps kids from arguing over who goes where. Feel free to call them up by other concepts as well, like who has pets at home, number of siblings, birth month, etc.
I hope this helped give you a few ideas about how to make your exit feel less like being trampled by t-rexes. If you have an idea I didn’t mention here, please respond to this email and let me know! I love brainstorming creative classroom management methods.
