Managing a Junior class through songs

Songs are frequently used in the English classroom, either as listening activities or merely to bring some fun into the lesson.

In Junior classes songs can play an even greater role, you all know it’s true because native or not, when you think of the alphabet, the first thing that comes to mind is the ABC song.

I’d dare say that songs can become the glue that keeps everything together. It’s an easy way to manage a classroom full of energetic 6-year-olds, hungry for knowledge!

Using control songs (or classroom management songs) is an excellent way for young students to form healthy habits in the classroom, and you don’t even have to speak, you just have to be consistent with the songs you use and see how quickly they learn and follow the rules behind each song!

Hello songs

Hello songs signal the beginning of your lesson. It’s important for students to know when class starts and ends, it gives them a sense of security. It also transforms the uncomfortable feeling of following instructions into a feeling of participating in something. And the teacher participates, too! You can teach your students simple gestures to do while listening to the song, which will make it even more fun, and it will give you the opportunity to bond with them by building your own “rituals”.

Game songs

Game songs can be used as activities for the consolidation of language skills. Spread flashcards around the room and ask students to walk, run, tiptoe, etc one behind the other in circles until you stop the music. They have to say out loud the name of the word closest to them when the music stops.

Another thing you can do is invent a dance or gestures for a song and play a different version of Slap* with your students.

The same thing can work with gap-fill cutouts and basically anything you can think of.

* Use One Little Finger to play a version of Slap. In this game students sit on the floor and have flashcards spread around them. The teacher sings along and changes the lyrics to "put them on MELON!", then has students repeat the word.

Freeze Dance can also be used to play Slap. When students Freeze, the teacher stops the audio. They have to slap a card, say the word out loud to unfreeze and the song resumes!

Management songs

Anxious, rowdy, disruptive students? Maybe it’s time for a song – first, to let out all these pent-up emotions and secondly to refocus attention.

It’s time to move to a different activity, but students take forever to clean up and put away their stuff? Give them until the end of the song to finish up, it's going to speed things up.

Do your students ignore you when you say “Ok, stop colouring now, let’s get back to our book” ? Choose a colouring song and set it as a time limit!

Goodbye songs

Goodbye songs signal the end of your lesson. It is used exactly like the Hello songs.

Download the songs, or any other songs you like and put them in a memory stick so that you can always have them at hand. Remember that students need to know the rules for each one and frequent exposure to them if you really want them to work as control songs. Enjoy 😊