Transitions in Kindergarten: Classroom Management

It’s March, and many of us around the country are dealing with one of two things. 1.) You have been in the classroom for a while already this year, and you are dealing with some antsy kindergarteners who are ready for a break. Or, 2.) You just recently transitioned to the classroom for the first time, and you have a classroom of kindergarteners who have had no practice in classroom behavior.

Whatever your situation is, it is always a great time to tighten up a classroom routine that is causing you stress. Today, I want to talk about transitions. This was a huge point-of-stress for me for many years as a teacher! Keep reading to learn what I discovered is important during transitions, and how I created a smooth routine with my students!

Transitions: The problems they cause

Transitions occur at multiple points in our day. There’s a transition when you switch from one small group to the next. They happen again when you move from one subject to another one. You deal with transitions when you get ready to leave the room, and when you bring students back into your room. Any time your students are moving from one moment of the school day to a completely new one, a transition occurs.

The issue with transitions is that they give our students just a few seconds of unstructured time, which creates a tiny bit of chaos. Your centers could be a well-oiled machine, but those few seconds where students clean up and move to the next center may still be noisy. Your students may know how to get settled and get back to work after a few minutes, but those minutes lost on trying to quiet students down and correct behavior are precious! It’s better for teachers to approach transitions with the same intention that they approach every other piece of classroom management in their rooms!

Voice Level

To take control of transitions, it’s important to know the three main things you need to explicitly teach your students.

The first one is voice level. Do you deal with lots of noise when students first re-enter your room? Are things super loud when students are moving to the carpet for a mini-lesson? Just like any other routine or procedure, students must be explicitly taught what their voices should sound like during a transition.

There may be some transitions where some noise is ok. Lining up to go out for recess, or packing up at the end of the day, may be a time where some talking doesn’t bother you. Other transitions are simply more efficient if students don’t stop to chat along the way. Moving from the carpet to desks, for example, is a time where quiet voices is best.

Create a system for signaling to students what kind of volume is appropriate for different transitions. This can be holding up a volume card, holding up fingers to signal that we are at a ‘0’, a ‘1’, or a ‘2’ during a transition, etc. Do not assume that students will know what voice level is appropriate at different points in the day. Teach them!

Location

Another way to tighten up your transitions is to make it abundantly clear where students are going, and to teach them that there are no stops along the way. If the class is moving from the carpet to centers, there shouldn’t be any hovering at the cubbies. If everyone is lining up for lunch, no one should be grouped together at their desks.

Transitions serve a purpose: to get our class from one place to another, quickly. Explain this to your students, and re-frame the idea of transitions as working together to meet a goal. Your class has a goal of getting to lunch quickly and easily, so no lunch time is wasted. Clearly naming the location, and explaining why it’s important to not make any stops anywhere else, can help those students who want to linger in other parts of the room.

Movement

Similarly to voice level, it seems clear to us that students should walk to wherever they are going next. For kindergarteners, you often have to state the obvious! Give students expectations for what kind of movement is safe in your classroom at different times, and explain the importance of that. We all have that student who will run, jump on the carpet, and roll to their spot. That one student can take an otherwise smooth transition, and turn it into a mess. Get ahead of that moment by having the conversation about safe movement now!

As an additional idea, transitions are a great time to let students explore different types of movement, and get their energy out! Asking students to dance to the carpet, hop to the door to line up, or play air guitar to their desks, are all great ways to help students move a little more, while still being within your boundaries!

Transition Tango

When I decided to take control of the transitions in my room, I developed a routine called ‘Transition Tango’. It combines the three main transition points listed above, but in a handy visual for kindergarten! This is how it works:

1.) Using the transition tango board, which I like to have hung somewhere for students to see, start by naming the voice level that students should have during the transition. I have volume cards that I hang up, depending on how much chatting I will allow.

2.) Name the movement. Sometimes, you simply just need the students to walk. Other times, you can spice things up with a fun movement. Using labeled picture cards, I hang up which movement students may do for this transition.

3.) Name the location. Going to the rug, lining up at the door, going back to chairs, etc. Whatever the location is, I clearly label that for my students so there are no pit stops along the way!

If you want to take control of your transitions, you can grab my Transition Tango Board HERE! It’s a great way to get some of your sanity back, and save time in your classroom! Want more classroom management ideas? Keep reading, HERE!

Happy teaching!