Afternoon or classroom dismissal. Who loves it? Who hates it? This time of the day used to be one of my most dreaded times of the day. It was chaotic and stressful and felt like we rushed out the door every day. I didn’t want that feeling of being rushed. The end of the day should be a time of fun and celebration and a time to wrap up our day together.
So, what’s our solution for our classroom dismissal?
A DANCE PARTY! True story. We end every single day with a classroom dance party.
Here’s my philosophy: Our students work incredibly hard every day. We expect our students to show up and take risks each day. And guess what? THEY DO IT! And they do it incredibly well. (AND SO DO THE TEACHERS!) Each day I am amazed at how hard my students work, the risks they take, and the learning that we experience together. Even on the bad days, my students amaze me.
And because we work so hard and because our students meet those amazing expectations, I 1 million percent believe that each day should be celebrated. All of the learning, growth, risk-taking, and love that we share each day should be celebrated. I also want to send my students home on a positive, happy, and excited note. I want my students to go home happy and excited so they love school (and I want them to come back the next day! LOL)!
How Does Dismissal With A Dance Party Work?
We celebrate our day with a dance party. We use the same two songs every day. The students love them and they are comfortable with them so they can sing along and dance. And they don’t get bored!
Turn the song all the way up. It’s loud. We rock out for our dance party! We switch our classroom LED lighting to flash and turn the classroom into a dance club! Everyone sings. We dance. As we’re dancing, I call students names. They bounce on the trampoline. Then they go to their cubby and pack up. Four students are packing up at once.
Everyone else is around the carpet singing and dancing. The four students who are packing up do so quickly and quietly because they want to come back to the dance party!!! As a student returns to the dance party, I call the next person to bounce and pack up! This system lets us celebrate our day and makes the packing-up process so much for efficient and calm!
Students who are really into it and showing off their moves get to dance on one of our stages! We make sure everyone gets turns on the stages over the course of the week!
Closing Circle
When the dance party finished, everyone is packed up and ready to go! Then we have our closing circle. Much like our morning meeting, we come together to end our day together. Our closing circle is very fast and takes about 3-5 minutes. We quickly go around the circle and each child shares something they learned OR their favorite part of the day. Having this opportunity to share something from the day sends them home with something to talk about! After we share, I say: “GOODBYE MUSTACHES!”
Some of the songs I’ve used:
Try Everything – Shakira
We Are Family
Remember This – Jonas Brothers
Roar – Katy Perry
Firework – Katy Perry
I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
For more information, check out these posts:
