20 Fun and Easy Call and Response Ideas for the Kindergarten Classroom

“Stop what you’re doing right now and pay attention because I have something very important to tell you.”

That is what you are telling your students when you use attention-getters or a call and response.

I’m Katherine Barker, and in this video, I’m going to be sharing all about calls and responses and using them in your classroom.

And I have a giant list of calls and responses for you to use in your class right away.

What is a Call and Response?

For those of you who aren’t sure what a call and response is, it’s just simply a cue the teacher uses to have students stop what they’re doing and have their full attention on the teacher. Another term is attention-getters.

Typically, a call and response is when the teacher says the first part, and the students come back chorally with the second part. Call and responses are just a fun way to help get students’ attention, right? You don’t not have to yell; you don’t have to keep a timer and take off recess time every time, as you know, the kids keep talking and talking, and you’re just waiting. You’re not saying, “I’m waiting.” They’re just a fun way to help get our young kiddos’ attention.

Why They Work:

So calls and responses really help to promote active listening on the students’ part, and they also help promote and encourage student engagement, which is just always better, what we want, right? That’s always what we want in teaching in general: student engagement and active listening. So today’s video is going to be super fun and light-hearted. I’m just going to rapid fire a bunch of different call-and-response ideas for you to grab and use in your own classroom. And I will have a free call and response download at the end of this video, so be sure to stick around, okay?

So here we go. I’m just going to share with you all the different calls and responses that you can use in your own classroom. And don’t forget, so the first part I’m going to say is what the teacher says, the second part is the students’ response.

Let’s get to it!

Giant List of Call and Response Ideas

• Class, class. Yes, yes.
• Oh classy, classy, Oh yesie, yesie.
• Macaroni and cheese, everybody freeze.
• Hocus pocus, everybody focus. (That’s a great one to use at Halloween time.)
• Here’s a rhyme, it’s learning time.
• Ready, set, you bet.
• Hands on top, everybody stop. (hands stay on top of head).
• To infinity, and beyond.
• Chicka chicka, boom boom.
• Avengers, assemble.
• Waterfall, shhhhhhh.
• Holy moly, guacamole.
• Ready to rock, ready to roll.
• Here ye, hear ye, all hail the queen.
• Shark bait, wo ha ha.
• Are you ready, kids? Aye, aye, captain.
• Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.

Honorable Mentions:

And here are some honorable mentions that I want to share with you:

• Tallyho, let’s go. (That’s a great one to use when your students are all lined up and you’re ready to go somewhere.)
  
• Understand, rubber band. (Just have students repeat after you, “Understand, rubber band.” I love to use that one when I’m explaining an activity or a center just to make sure students are engaged and are tracking with me.)
  
• This one is just more of a song that students can sing with you, but I think it’s a fantastic attention getter:
  • Open shut them, open shut them, give a little clap, clap, clap.
  • Open shut them, open shut them, fold them in your lap, lap, lap.

Okay, so quick recap. We talked about what a call and response is, we talked about why they’re so helpful in our kindergarten classroom, and we did a fun rapid fire list of all the different call and responses that you can use in your classroom.

So don’t forget to download this list of all the ones that I shared with you. All you have to do is download it, print it, and just bring it into your classroom. You can look down and pick whatever call and response you want to use at that time.

In a Nutshell:

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like and subscribe so that way you are the first to know when a new video drops. Okay, friend, that’s everything for now. I’ll see you in the next one. Until then, happy teaching!