When people think about teaching, they often focus solely on academics. Reading, writing, math, science, and social studies are the common ideas that come to mind. What most people do not realize about education is how much time is spent teaching daily routines, rules, and transitions. This is especially true in preschool, and other early childhood classrooms. Students first entering a school environment must learn to raise their hands, how to walk in the hall, where to put their supplies, when to talk, clean up after themselves, and much more! This article helps make teaching these routines easier by providing a walking in line and line up song.

Teaching More than a Song

It is important to begin every year with a lesson on rules and routines before entering the classroom (which will require follow-up mini-lessons to reinforce them). At this time, discuss your expectations for walking in the hallway. You can also introduce the transition song featured below. It can be helpful to display the words on a large piece of chart paper for the first several weeks until the students memorize it. Although most of the students are unable to read, it is a great way to expose them concepts of print, such as directionality, capitalization, punctuation, and that text contains meaning. It is also very important to spend a lot of time during the first six weeks of school practicing your daily routines to establish correct habits in all students. Make sure you also write down the name of the tune so you will remember from year to year.

The line up song is sung to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell:”

My hands are at my side.

I’m standing straight and tall.

Eyes ahead, mouth is closed;

I’m ready for the hall.

If your school requires other hallway behaviors, it is also possible to adjust the words to better fit your situation. One example of this would be a school that requires walking in the hallway with their hands behind their backs. You can change the words to be:

My hands behind my back

While I stand so tall

Eyes are forward

Lips are closed

I’m ready for the hall

Daily routines and transitions are important part of all preschool and other early childhood classrooms. By providing songs for your students for these routines and transitions, you are providing them with constant reminders of your behavior expectations in a fun and catchy way! This preschool walking in a line and line up song is just the beginning! Make sure you begin searching for more transition songs for all daily routines to add to your repertoire. So get ready to sing your way to a happy, well run classroom!