Transitions

Have you ever played music in your class? Music is a great way to transition from one task to another. Transitioning can be hectic and even chaotic, if routines are not in place.

Centers/Small Group Rotation
I use music to transition the students when we're in small group rotation. Once the music plays, they know to clean up their stations and move to the next location. By the time the music stops, the students should be beginning the task in their next rotation.

Collecting Papers
Music can help with the collecting of papers too. Just let the students know to pass the papers forward or backward and you should have all papers by the time the music ends. 

Getting the Students in Line
Let the students know that it is time to line up and that they should be in a straight, quiet line by the time the music stops. 



The most important idea is to not play the entire song, only a snippet. In the beginning, you may start with 90 seconds of a song, then with more practice, the amount of time the music plays should decrease.

Poker Chips

Poker Chips are a great tool to use to teach for place value, counting, equations, combining like terms, among others. You can get them from Target or the Dollar Tree.

Place Value

Each color could represent a different place value (i.e. red = ones, white = tenths, blue = hundredths). 

Counting

Use them as counters to add, subtract, multiply or divide. To take it a step further, use them as decimals (see Place Value above).

Equations

One color could represent a variable and the other two could represent positive or negative numbers. Use an index card for the equal sign and the operation.

Example:

Blue = Variable

Red = Negative

White = Positive

 1 blue + 2 whites = 3 reds. What is the value of a blue? 5 reds

Combining Like Terms

Each color could be a term.

Blue = x

White = y

Red = Constant

Create this problem:

blue white blue white blue white red red red red white white

Then the students to put the like colors together and write an expression.

Answer: 3x + 5y + 4