One week down!

I finished the first week of school. If you had asked me at the end of the day how I felt, I would have said, "Nap-time, please." Now that I have had my little snooze and feeling perkier, I can assess with clarity and realize that we had the most wonderful first week! I was proud of my Wonders! They started out unsure of rules and procedures, but you could hear them tell one another as the week went on what was a good choice and a poor choice. The conversations ranged from what they were doing, reminding each other of where to put things as one of the clean-up song/transition songs began, "Shout" by The Isley Brothers , to telling their own personal stories about how their pets sometimes made good choices and bad choices just like Ms. W's pets Blaze, Lucky, and Ace.
You maybe asking yourself, why I use transition songs such as, "Shout", "Sugar, Sugar", "All Star" and "Iko, Iko" to name some of the pop rock songs I use. Its because I enjoy the transition, the students enjoy the transition and the introduction of music that is something other than child-like is expanding to them. I have found their response time is quicker, they often recognize the tune because they may hear it on the radio with their families and it makes all of us happy because we dance as we transition ( the music just makes you want to dance.) I judiciously pick oldies and newer pop songs that have an upbeat and words.