Transition: Cats

This one was a favorite of mine at my last school. It started with a suggestion from a 2nd grader. We were learning about animals and she mentioned that the cats prowl through the jungle like how we need to go through the hallways: quietly and slowly. This started the new transition.

Begin by lining up your students. Then ask them how a cat moves. Some will demonstrate it, some will just tell you that they move slowly and quietly. They sneak around and it can be very hard to tell where they are in the house because they are so quiet. The goal for this transition will be to move through the halls like cats. We don’t want anyone to know where we are in the hallways. Cats do not make loud clumpy sounds so we can’t either.

When I did this with my class we would sometimes pretend to be a specific cat and sneak up on the specials teacher that we were going to see that day. My favorite was when we were all panthers (my high school mascot) and snuck up on the science teacher. She asked what animal we were that day and the whole class growled and said “panthers!” (which was completely unplanned). Have fun with this

Enjoy your prowling!

Ninjas!

Over the 14 years (yes, 14 YEARS) of working with students in some way or another, I’ve found that ninjas are timeless. They never are lacking in their popularity. My students all want to be the next ninja turtles or some other samurai character.

For this transition, I took the popularity of the ninja and used it to my advantage. Start this by collecting your students together in a line. tell them that you are the new Sensei and you will be training them to become the best ninjas in the world! They will need to follow the laws of the ninjas in order to be the best.

The Rules Of The Ninjas:

1. Ninjas are silent warriors. They are stealthy and sneaky. If someone hears the ninja, the ninja has failed. They are not to be seen or heard.
2. Ninjas work alone. While we must walk together as a class, you are worried about you. If someone else fails, do not let them bring you down. YOU ARE THE LONE NINJA! BE THE BEST!
3. Ninjas are invisible. You should be sure to stay near the wall. If you are walking in the middle of the hall, everyone will see you. If you are walking near the wall, no one will notice as you walk by.
4. Ninjas focus on their mission and target. Your mission is to get from point A to Point B. You cannot let others in the hallway distract you from your mission.

After explaining the rules, tell the students where you are going between and then be sure to remind them of the rules as you move from place to place.

This is also a great tool for a classroom reward system. Students can earn belts for their transition performances. If the whole class gets black belts (the highest belt), you can have a party or give them all a big reward.

Remember the code of the ninja. Focus on your mission of being the best teacher ever!

From,

Your Sensei 😉

The Magic Scrap

This was a great idea that I saw when looking for substitute teacher tools. This comes from Hannah Braun at The Classroom Key.

I used this the other day and cannot figure out why I never thought of this before. This is a transition for cleaning up the room. When subbing with a fifth grade class, the students somehow managed to add a hundred scraps to the floor! I was amazed at how they did that in a few moments. I was upset and worried how this would look when the teacher came back. So I used this transition tool to help me out.

The Magic Scrap is very simple.

1. Tell the students that there is a special scrap on the floor. It is a magic scrap. Whoever finds it will receive a reward.
2. Have the students collect every scrap off the floor. If it is not the scrap then you need to place it in the trash.
3. The students will grab all the trash around the room.
4. Once all of the scraps are collected, pick a student who has found “the magic scrap”. There really is no magic scrap. Pick a student who might need a pick me up that day and reward them.

Very simple! Great way to ensure that students keep their room clean and give a student some needed encouragement.

Enjoy your teaching.

Make Me Forget

This section of the blog will be all about transitions between rooms or activities. We have come up with a lot of very interesting ways to get our students to move quietly.

The first is one of my favorites. Make Me Forget. I usually use this one when the class has to walk through the hallways and I need them to be quieter than usual.

Tell your students where you are going and that they need to be especially quiet today. My dialogue goes something like this.

“Alright guys. We have to get from here to the music room. And the rest of the school is still in learning mode. So we have to be especially quiet. So I’m going to give you a challenge. I want you to make me forget that I have a whooooole class behind me. That’s right. Be so quiet that I forget that you are here.”

Usually at this point my kids get very excited thinking that they can trick a teacher. So we will begin our trek through the halls. If they are quiet I will occasionally hum or sing a bit as though I was just wandering the halls. This will provoke some giggles and I will turn around and “discover” that the class is with me. Then I’ll say something about how quiet they were and remind them of their goal to make me forget they are there.

Pause a few times though your walk. It is good to keep the students engaged in the game. If they think that you don’t care, they will stop being interested. You want them to believe you have genuinely forgotten them for a minute. My students love this game and are always up for this challenge. I’ve used this game for 3 years now and it has still worked well for me.

 

Try it out and let me know how it goes! Don’t forget to comment if you have your own transitions that you use and would like to share. Let me know if you make changes to the game! I’d love to hear from you.