Hi! Well, when I need kids to be quiet and sit down this is what I sing (invented... I don´t know exactly which other song´s melody it is, but you´ll surely find one that fits! It was passed to me by another teacher)It goes...
"Let's sit down everybody on the chairs/floor/rug (or)Let's sit down everybody in a circle, let's sit down, one, two, three" As you count you cover your eyes with your hands and ask: "Is everybody ready?" You elicit "Yes!" or "No" from kids. It works wonderfully!! If "no" is the answer, you sing it again.
When they are disorganized and you need them to listen to you and pay attention, we invented the following with a colleague to ask for silence: "The owl goes shh shh, the owl goes shh shh, everybody shh shh, everybody shhhhhhh" You start singing quite loudly and gradually lower your voice as if whispering as you get to the end of the song. They are very simple songs but very useful. This is similar to the one in Spanish but the melody is different. Another one we use to tidy up is Barney's "Clean up" song.
I hope these songs are of help! Regards to all of you.
Patricia
31-05-2011 00:35
when I want children to be quiet I sing little capterpillars ( they are all sleeping and we began to wake up telling one two three four five , they began to strech and moving their buttons, they like to do it and are quiet
