Friday 29 January 2016

Routines, Rules 'n' Rock in the classroom with Rocking Dan Teaching Man

The summer holidays are over and school has started down here in Australia. It's important to get your class settled into a routine and following the class and school rules as quickly as possible. If you are in the northern hemisphere and you are half way through the school year now is a good time to re-enforce your classroom routines and expectations. Music is a great way to help children learn concepts and can be used as an effective classroom management tool. Here are some Rocking Dan Teaching Man songs that can be used to help get your students into a routine and have everyone singing from the same classroom management song sheet all day long!


Start the school day off with music first thing in the morning. As your children come into class play the song "Good morning sit on the floor quietly." It gives the children clear directions and expectations about how to enter the classroom. The song reminds the children about the things the teacher is looking for when they come into class. It's a fun catchy song. Challenge your students to see if everyone can be sitting on the floor quietly ready to learn before the end of the tune. 




Getting a nice straight quiet class line can be a challenge at times. "The line up song" teaches the children in a fun melodic way the things you are looking for when they line up. It gives clear expectations about how the class line should look and what the children need to be doing in order to be ready to move around the school. 




A great session of learning can lead to an untidy classroom. The children may have been using glitter, recycled materials, boxes, paper, markers, pencils, scissors, electronic devices, books and cardboard during the lesson. Everyone needs to be responsible for taking care of the classroom when it's time to pack up. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get the children motivated to clean up. "Tidy up the classroom" is a fun song that encourages the children to clean up quickly, safely and respectfully.  Challenge your students to see if they can tidy up the classroom before the end of the song. You can play it a couple times if it's a big clean up job. Your kids will be happily singing as they tidy and before you and they even know it the classroom will be cleaned up and looking great!




Through out the school day you are going to need the children to move from one lesson to another. "Transition time" is a fun song that encourages the children to move quickly and sensibly to their next activity. The song gives the children 1 minute to do everything they need to do to get ready for the next lesson. It's a great way to get the kids focused on what they should be doing so no time is wasted between learning sessions.  

Music and movement can also have a positive impact on your students' brain function. Music and movement can help to create the right balance in the mind to allow the children to attain an optimal level of alertness and calmness so that they are ready to learn. Here are some songs that can help the children in your class find their optimal level of mental alertness.




"Do the Bear Walk" is a fun and energetic song that incorporates gross motor and heavy load resistance movement exercises with balance and coordination movements. It's a great way to help improve your students brain function and gets them in a good frame of mind to be ready to learn.



"Rocking Star" is another song that incorporates movement and music to help  children get ready to learn.

Try these songs to assist with your classroom routines and to help get your children in the right frame of mind to learn. For more educational tunes visit my YouTube channel and don't forget to subscribe!

If you can use YouTube at your school then visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store


Until next time Rock on in the classroom!

Rocking Dan Teaching Man










Saturday 23 January 2016

Rocking Dan Teaching Man's fun Skype Sing along with 1st grade Class in Delaware

I had a fantastic time singing along with and reading to Cindy Price's (Mrs Price's Kingergators Blog)  wonderful 1st grade class in Delaware, USA via Skype from Sydney, Australia on Friday afternoon (Saturday morning for me). The distance from Sydney to Delaware is 9854 Miles or 15858 km so the music had to travel a long way!




The kids were great. I loved their singing, actions and all round enthusiasm for music and learning. They had so many interesting and thoughtful questions for me about Australia and I learnt a lot about Delaware and the USA from them as well.  I even got to give out some Class Dojo points from halfway around the world!  It was an amazing experience.

The Songs we sung were "What makes a good friend?", "The friends of 10", and "Let's make a pizza".

"What makes a good friend?"

"The friends of 10"
 Thanks for having me in your class Cindy, your kids totally rock! I had such a fun time!

If any other teachers in the USA or any other part of the world wants me to Skype with their class for a sing along then send me a message on Facebook Rocking Dan Teaching Man Facebook  or Twitter Rocking Dan Teaching Man Twitter and I am sure we could work out a time!

Make sure you check out my YouTube channel and click subscribe.
Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

Here is a link to Cindy's blog http://mrspriceskindergators.blogspot.com  She is a wonderful teacher and her blog has so many fantastic ideas about teaching and learning.

Until next time, keep rocking,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man




Wednesday 20 January 2016

Rocking Dan's GuestEduCelebrity appearance on #TeacherFriends Twitter chat

It was a wonderful  experience leading the #TeacherFriends twitter chat on Tuesday the 12th of January. I had an amazing time connecting with so many great educators from the USA and around the world. The topic for the chat was music and movement in the classroom. This is a topic which I have a great interest in and I was able to share some of my knowledge about the benefits of using music and movement in the classroom. I also shared some of my resources and learnt from other fantastic teachers.


Click on the link below to read full chat on  Storify. Thanks to Maggie from Maggies Kinder Corner https://twitter.com/maggieskinder  for putting it together.


 Here is a list of the questions from the chat.



Thank you to award winning children's author and musician Debbie Clement https://twitter.com/KweezleQueen for arranging to have me on the #TeacherFriends twitter chat. I had a fantastic time and I am very grateful for the opportunity. It one of the highlights of my teaching career. 

Music and movement plays an important role in the development of children. They are wonderful tools to help kids with their learning. Teachers can use music and movement to help teach curriculum content, social skills, rules and routines, gross motor skills and to help children get ready to learn. And of course singing, dancing and playing music is also lots of fun! Check out my YouTube channel for some great educational music for the primary classroom Rocking Dan Teaching Man's YouTube channel

Until Next Time Keep Rocking and Learning,

Rocking Dan Teaching Man