Joni and Jean are helping their preschool children get ready to go to the playground. They have their hands busy snapping coats and tying shoes before going outside on a cold fall day in New England. Their school's only access to the outdoors is through a long hallway. While waiting, a few children start pushing, another starts running around, and the teachers start to feel frustrated.

A few hours later, Joni and Jean help the children slow down before rest time. Joni and Jean often use the children's rest time to plan upcoming activities and classroom events. During their meeting, they discuss how frustrated they both feel by the challenging behaviors that often become more visible when the children lose direction and guidance from the adults in charge. This time, instead of planning upcoming activities, the teachers decide to spend the hour planning for transitions.

The next day, Joni and Jean invite the children to play a game while they put on outdoor clothes before going outside. They start singing "Join into the Game", inviting children to take turns making up gestures that will be part of the song. Unlike the previous day, the children are having fun while remaining focused on getting themselves ready to go outside, with minimal disruptive behavior.

As early childhood educators, we often take great pleasure in preparing "cool" activities or finding new books that will spark children's curiosity and attention. But how many of us plan for the next transition?

In a classroom, a transition is the time between two activities or routines during the day; for example, the time between free choice and circle time or between snack and outdoor play. On average, in a full-day, group-care program, children and adults experience between sixteen and twenty transitions daily. At five to ten minutes per transition, up to three hours are spent in this manner each day. Transitions represent change—change in activity, energy level, space, and/or focus. Change is difficult for all of us, but especially for young children. Transitions also offer great learning opportunities. Children can learn about prediction, difference, problem solving, inclusion, and how to smoothly and playfully shift focus.

Participatory songs can help make transitions smooth, fun, and educational. In order to be a part of a song, rather than just listening to it, children need to engage, pay attention, and contribute ideas, words, or gestures. As children become involved in a song, behavior issues diminish, words replace frustration, and the song becomes a problem-solving mechanism.

To engage children by using songs during transitions you need two basic ingredients: variety and complexity. For example, songs that can be sung for a whole year and sound different every time, or a wide selection of songs that stimulate children's brains, keeping them interested by providing new and progressively more complex patterns. Nursery rhymes and popular tunes can be a wonderful start. However, teachers also need to stretch beyond the familiar and increase their repertoire, in order to make their repertoire richer and more interesting to a diverse group of children.

Singing is one of the best things that we can do with children. From birth, babies are biologically primed to respond with pleasure to the human voice (Honig 1995). Notice the singsong way in which caregivers speak to infants, and how infants respond to it. Music reduces stress. It encourages us to use our whole body, it stimulates our mind, and it satisfies our emotions. It allows us to relax and be silly, and it invites us to be open to improvisation as it promotes physical and emotional closeness. Singing also helps build relationships; when we sing together, we feel like we belong together.

Some of you may wonder if I am suggesting that teachers sing all day long. Yes, if that works for you. However, the process may not feel comfortable to everyone. Singing during transitions shouldn't be strenuous or difficult. If you feel uncomfortable having to learn many new songs or if singing does not come naturally to you, then you need to slow down the process. Like all new (and old) experiences, practice is what guides the process. And practice happens through repetition.

If singing seems daunting at first, chant the verses, whisper them, or hum them. The goal is to be playful and to reduce the stress that often builds during transition times, especially unplanned transitions such as emergency fire drills or periods of unexpected waiting. Make friends with each song. As Ruth Seeger says, "We just need to carry the song around us, as children do." (Seeger 2002) Careful observation is an important part of this process. Noticing what children are doing during the day will allow you to create original and exciting songs that are specific to the children and the activities in your setting.

Teachers play an extremely important role in the lives of young children. Carefully planned transitions can help prevent unnecessary confusion and disruptive behavior. Using participatory songs to help children predict what is coming up next is a powerful (and fun!) tool to help them through the many changes in a day.

References:
Honig, Alice Sterling. 1995. "Singing with Infants and Toddlers." Young Children (July 1995) 72-78.
Seeger, Ruth Crawford. 2002. American Folksongs for Children. New York: Oak Publications.

Listen to sample songs from Easy Songs for Smooth Transitions here.

Nina Araújo, author of Easy Songs for Smooth Transitions, has worked in the field of early childhood education—in orphanages, public and private preschools, laboratory schools, and child care centers—for over twenty years. Nina has taught early childhood education courses, trained student teachers in preschool classrooms, and presented at national conferences. She is currently the director of Picasso's Playground, an educational consulting firm that serves communities in North and South America. Her work focuses on helping teachers cultivate safe relationships between children and their caregivers in the classroom or at home, incorporating music, movement, art, and environmental design.

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