Lining up

It is a feat to get 15 three year olds to line up. Some of us are lucky enough to have doors that open onto the playground and eat in our rooms, so it's a nonissue. I have to take my kids down the hallway for the bathroom, the playground, chapel, and lunch. The first week or so, I was frustrated. They were three and had no idea how to stand in line and I had no idea how to make them stand in line.

Then I remembered that at a previous daycare I worked at, the toddler teachers would get their kids down the hallway by singing a tune that went "Put your finger on the wall, on the wall." Now, we can't do that, because there's art covering our walls. But I took their tune (which is "If you're happy and you know it) and made my own. I take my students names written on sentence strips and tape them in 'line order' on the ground. Then we sing this song to line up.

Line up Song
(To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")

Put your toes on your name, on your name
Put your toes on your name, on your name
Put your toes on your name if you want to go (outside/to lunch/to chapel/potty)
Put your toes on your name, on your name.

Our line is nice and straight, yes it is
Our line is nice and straight, yes it is
Our line is nice and straight because we're really really great
Our line is nice and straight, yes it is.

We are quiet in the hall, yes we are
We are quiet in the hall, yes we are
We are quiet in the hall so the other kids can learn
We are quiet in the hall, yes we are

When we are not in the classroom, we line up by singing this verse first

Make your line nice and straight, nice and straight
Make your line nice and straight, nice and straight
Make your line nice and straight, make it really really great
Make your like nice and straight, nice and straight

It works like a charm! It still took us a good solid month to get used to walking quietly in line and watching where we were going, but I made great progress using this song. Also, it made me laugh once because one of my students called out "But YOU aren't quiet in the hall. YOU are singing!"