My class of 3-5 year old students includes those with disabilities. They have been learning about making thumbs up choices. They are also learning about having safe hands. The teachers have been role playing using puppets and talking about experiences in the classroom.

Sometimes, when lessons are too wordy, my students struggle to focus and retain the information. For routine tasks, a song helps them to remember what to do. Many of my students are motivated by music and can often be heard singing to themselves.

I created these songs to help reinforce the concepts that they are learning. We also sing the chorus to the songs when students need reminders. Our older children are helping our younger students by talking about making thumbs up choices and using safe hands when they play.

The songs are part of our intentional teaching of the concepts . The teaching continues by reinforcing the learning throughout the school day and singing the songs when students need reminding.

I teach the version without ukulele first to show the children how to do the actions. Some of my students attend better when I play ukulele. Once they had learned how to do the actions, I added ukulele.

For the safe hands’ song, I don’t play ukulele because I want to demonstrate what safe hands look like. Of course, I could add that playing ukulele is a thing we can do with safe hands.

Let me know if these songs have been helpful in your classroom.