Recently, I’ve been reading about music teacher struggles with behavior management, especially for littles; let’s say PreK and Kinder mostly. I’m about to share my favorite tricks with you, because this is one of my super powers! 
I absolutely LOVE the littles!! I guarantee you that if you follow these simple instructions, you will have every class of tiny people doing EXACTLY what you want them to do!
Step 1: ONLY use Positive Reinforcement – What does that look like? As you are conducting class, you are going to point out the kiddos who are doing what you like. For example, “I love the way Sally is sitting! She has her hands in her lap; she is sitting still and silent, and she has her eyes on me!” If you use this strategy for each and every procedure in your classroom, you will find that those little ones are ALL going to be doing exactly that. They are dying to be the one called on to be the model student
Step 2: Try to catch them doing something good – Each and every time you see someone following the directions, take a moment to point it out. What does this look like? When you see that someone has followed your directions, say “I see that James is tiptoeing to the music, just like I asked. Thanks James!” 
Make sure you thank them for their great behavior. This is especially effective for those students who have LOTS of trouble following directions. If you catch THOSE students doing it right, they will realize that they are getting positive attention for doing it right, and they may think twice about negative attention-seeking behavior.
I know what you’re saying. Do you think I have time for that?? Yes, you do! Because if you don’t take the time to catch the good behavior then you’ll be spending much more time correcting the bad behavior.
Step 3: Keep them super busy so they don’t have time to misbehave. I change activities every 6-7 minutes when I’m teaching littles. Here is an example of what a typical 30 minute lesson looks like (Free Lesson Plan ALERT!!):
- Teach students the words to the Forte/Piano song by Music K-8
by rote as they are entering your classroom. You heard me! I start the minute they enter my classroom to keep them occupied. This way, they don’t have time to start talking, and I don’t have to get them quiet in order to start my lesson! - Play the video for them (Link above). I usually tell them to listen and not sing a long.
- Discuss the words, forte and piano. Ask some questions about what they think each word means. Be sure to tell them they are learning a new language, so they can go home and tell their parents they know Italian now! :0) At this point we talk about whisper voices and shouting voices. I will actually shout forte, then let them echo, and whisper piano and let them echo.
- Allow them to help you create a large, non-locomotor movement for forte and a small, non-locomotor movement for piano. Allow them to stand up. Listen to the song again (don’t play the video or they may not do the movement), and instruct them to do the appropriate movement each time the words forte and piano are sung.
- Next, tell them to stomp a steady heartbeat on the forte phrases and tiptoe a steady heartbeat on the piano phrases while they listen to the song again.
- Finally, pass out frame drums and show them many ways to play the frame drum. They get to echo each one after you play it. (think tap, scratch with fingernails, bounce in the center, tap the drum on the floor, etc.) Ask them to help you select one way that sounds forte and another that sounds piano. Play the song again and let them play a steady heartbeat using the loud sound on the forte parts and soft sound on the piano parts. (If you don’t want it to get too loud in your classroom, only ask half the students to put down their drum and be the audience. They get to give one compliment and something to work on. Then the other half get to play).
Step 4: Keep it silly. If you have chairs in your classroom, I’m sure you’ve seen kinders falling out of them on purpose, because they think it’s funny and silly. 
They LOVE to see and be silly. If you add the silly, they don’t have to! Use silly voices. Skip and run and jump. Put on a silly hat or use a funny accent while you’re talking. Walk around the classroom in a weird way. ANYTHING you can do helps, because, as the adult, they don’t expect you to be silly, but the truly LOVE it when you are!
Step 5: Keep it simple: Remember that these babies have only been on the earth for 5 or 6 years. Everything needs to be broken down into baby steps. The more steps you take, the better they learn it and the more they like it. Take note of how many different ways
I teach the words forte and piano above! If you give them 5-6 different activities that all teach the same thing, they will not get bored and they will own that knowledge!
Step 6: Add storybook lessons! Littles ABSOLUTELY LOVE learning music skills through storybooks. If we’re not doing a storybook one week, they usually request one. I don’t do one every week, but I’ll bet I’m reading to them at least twice a month. This is another one of my super powers, so be sure to reach out if you’d like some suggestions!