Effective Transitions Essentials

Do you wish that you had a better way to get through all those challenging transition times during the day? Learn to treat those minutes as a precious resource-a special time to explore a joyful mini-curriculum over the course of the year, building skills that are crucial to academic success. This course focuses on best practices for educators in using sound (and silence) to help children develop and enhance their active listening, executive function, and social-emotional skills.

This course is built for teachers and coaches! You will learn the skills needed to manage classrooms of any size, including how to establish clear expectations, set boundaries, anticipate problems, and react proactively when they do.

Course Level: Beginner

Requirements/Prerequisites: None

Target Audience: Instruction and Effective Practice, Support Services

Course Meeting Times: In addition to on-demand coursework, mandatory live instruction sessions are held on Thursdays at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Completion Timeline/Duration: Four weeks

Head Start Alignment: This curriculum supports young children’s learning across various Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) learning domains, including: Approaches to Learning; Social and Emotional Development; Language and Communication; Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development
Cognition. 

Module Topics: 

1. Introduction to Creative Sound Play and the Greenfield Method
2. Putting Theory into Practice: Using the Three Basic Elements of Sound
3. Using Sound Sculptures for Transitions
4. Counting, Clapping, and Stomping
5. Counting with Pitch and Duration

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role of active listening skills and sound play in creating social-emotional learning environments that enable children to feel safe and enjoy learning.
• Develop the fundamental ability to create and communicate sound and silence using the three basic elements of sound (pitch, volume, and duration)