In a previous parenting article by Kori Rodley Irons, she explained how transitions can be difficult for children. Moving from one place to another or one activity to another can leave way for tempter tantrums or chaos. Kori also suggested that parents be prepared for the transitions and cut-off trouble before it starts.
The same is true with teaching students. There are many transitions to make within a school day. Younger students have shorter attention spans. Therefore they have more, shorter lessons within a day. Changing from activity to activity or lesson to lesson creates many transitions throughout the day.
As Kori explained, these transitions can lead to disruptive behavior and lost of attention spans. Therefore it is important to carefully plan your activities and transitions to compliment one another. It may take students a longer amount of transition time to move from an active lesson to a quiet time.
In primary grades, teachers use all different types of transitions. The most popular transitions include music or rhyme. Some teachers use a chant or song that is sung by the teacher and/or the class. Other teachers will play a transitional song on a CD. Some transitions have movements for the children. No matter which type of transition is chosen, it is important to be consistent and let the children know what to expect. For example, choose to play the same song for clean-up time each day. If you decide to use a bell to signal that students should go to their seat, use the bell consistently. Changing songs or tones will confuse the students.
Teachers can but do not have to create their own transitions. Transitions can be found on websites and in books. One book that has many helpful transitions is Terrific Transitions (Grades PreK-1) by Ellen Booth Church. In this book, Church has divided all of the transitions into categories. She has listed the type of activity with which the transition will work best. For example, there is a category for transitioning into quiet time, moving from location to location, and active activities.