Music in the Classroom

I am a music lover. It shows in all I do. I love using music to help students learn. I use it to teach phonics with puppets. I use it to get my class quiet or get up and move for a break. If you haven't heard of www.gonoodle.com you are missing out! The very best website for brain breaks and activities...so incredibly awesome. Plus, I am using it for some mindful moments, which is a blog for another day. So, back to music. If you pass by my classroom, you most likely will be hearing music or songs playing. Music is such a part of my life, it has become a part of my classroom.
My favorite way to use music is with transitions. I play a song and the kids know what to do. If I play one song, it means head over to the rug. Another song means clean up your center and get ready to move. One song means get to your seats and be ready for learning. My favorite though is getting my class to line up in line order (ABC order) for lunch. This can be a nightmare in first grade, but with my song I can have the little darlings in order and hands sanitized in under a minute, by the end of the first week. It becomes a game of beating the clock, and they love it.
So how do I do this? I use my phone and dropbox.com. I have the app on my phone and  I have my songs downloaded to dropbox. It is easy and amazing. I play the song and my students know drop everything and do what the song means. I don't have to say a word, I just play the song. I love it. The best part is the songs. I can even leave a list of the songs like this for my subs.
Music transitions- I have found it to be the most beneficial thing to my classroom
management. I play a song and they know where to be and by the end of the song, they
need to be in their spot and ready to listen. I have left an iPhone 4 that has all the songs
that we use to transition on the phone. The phone is disabled and won’t work for
anything else. I have shown the students how to use the phone and you can ask the class leader  how to use it. In the Dropbox folder I have the songs in the favorite’s folder.
Songs- Transition-
Go Diego Go Move to carpet
Word Girl Move to desks
Nick Jr Music Mashup Line up in alphabetical order
(I can usually have the class lined up and ready for lunch by the end of the song)
Curious George Move centers in reading
Martha Speaks Clean up math centers go to desk
Arthur Clean up for end of day group one
The Cat in the Hat Clean up for end of day group two
The Electric Company Clean up for end of day group three
Wild Kratts Clean up for end of day group four
I don’t play the whole song now, they move more quickly so I usually play the last 20
seconds for moving transitions from rug to seats. I play only 10 seconds to move in
centers. I play the whole song when we line up for lunch to wash hands in that time, but
only 20 seconds if we are going to recess or prep.
So, you may ask, where does one get such amazing songs?  I use a website called http://www.televisiontunes.com/ and found songs that I could use. I used PBS kids songs for most of my transitions and the kids love it! Of course I have little firsties, so if I taught older kids, I would definitely use different songs. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!