My free play has been terrible lately too. I'm glad someone else mentioned it.

I'm going to start encouraging them to do more free-craft-y type things like drawing, stickers, cutting. My older bunch (unfortunately almost the whole group) seems to enjoy this, and they tend to fight during free play lately. Hopefully this will help them transition better, since it's not a led-by-me activity, but is different enough to keep them more entertained and less at each other's throats.