Transitions between class

I stumbled into this idea a few years ago and it has made transitions between classes wonderful.  Sometimes I have to walk the kids down to P.E. or back to their room and this has been a step that helps make their transitions easier and controls their walking through the hallway.  I took a couple of those big instrument family posters (that I rarely actually use in my classroom) and I posted them up in my hallway.  Now when I'm walking a class down the hallway I can say to the line leader "Walk down to the harp and stop" or "Walk all the way down the hall until the picture of an instrument from the brass family and then stop."  It's been a really great thing to control the line and free me up but also helps to solidify classroom content.  The best part is when you have to stop and address a behavior with a student or when a first grader really has to tell you a very important story about their weekend because the line can take care of itself.  You can walk back with the class and the line leader has a defined place to stop in the hallway.

I have them at different intervals down the hallways so that I can stop them at different spots.  I've toyed with the idea of spreading this concept school wide so that all teachers can use it.  Then instead of saying "go to the corner and stop" they can say "go and stop at the picture of the hexagon" or whatever.  If I wanted I could do this by putting a quarter note in one spot and a half note somewhere else and tell the kids to "stop at the note that gets two counts" or something like that.

I chose recognizable instruments so that students can easily find what I'm talking about whatever their age.  It seems like even first graders can get the picture of a trumpet or a harp if I teach it well enough at the beginning of the year.  If they don't know the instrument you can say something like "walk down until you see the picture of a trumpet on the red poster."  Since they're all color coordinated it works pretty well.