It’s the beginning of the school year, and as is always the case, there is a lot to learn — for my students and for me. This year, the load of learning was stressing me out. The stress I was feeling wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t helpful, so I decided to try another way. I embraced my creativity, my love of words, and my love of singing, and decided to craft some song lyrics and a chant to help with two of my current challenges.

My first challenge is cleaning up. Sometimes cleaning up in the classroom is a real struggle. A song would give me something to do, might lighten the mood on the tough days, would give my Kinders time to clean, and would hopefully be fun. Now to think of a song to use.

As I was driving to work one morning it hit me — the Hokey Pokey! We’ve been singing the Hokey Pokey song ( laughing at the various things we put in — winner for most laughs was our armpit) so the Kinders were already familiar with the melody. And, yahoo, I could alter the words to allow me to sing about what my Kinders are already cleaning up, or to give direction when needed.

It’s a good thing I commute alone, because it took several rounds of the Hokey Pokey before I was satisfied with my work.

We pick some _____ up, we pick some _____ up, we pick some ______ up, and we put them all away. We work together every day. We’re fantabulous in every way. That’s what it’s all about!

We’ve been singing it for the past week, and it has accomplished all I hoped for and more. The best part — other than the cleaning up — is when I hear them singing “We work together every day. We’re fantabulous in every way. That’s what it’s all about!” I think I need to sing that part to myself over and over again to remind myself that yes indeed, that is what it’s all about.

Next I set my mind to a chant to begin our various learning periods. How might I help my Kinders prepare to learn? I love the idea of affirmations — rewiring their brains to believe in their own fantabulousness — but I wanted something with a beat that they could learn and repeat without my help. Inspired by my awesome Kinders, I reworked our usual affirmations into our ready to learn chant.

I’ve got a big beautiful brain and an awesome heart.
I’ve brave. I’m kind. And, I’m mighty.
I can do hard things, and I’m ready to learn.
(whisper) Oh yeah, I’m ready to learn.
2 snaps, hands in our laps.

I’ll be testing our chant out in the weeks to come, and will report back with any observations. I’m going to let my Kinders know that the chant is to help me as well. I always appreciate the reminders. I’ll keep you posted.