Classroom Rules That Lead to Better Classroom Management

Inside: Discover how carefully choosing your kindergarten classroom rules can help build better teacher language and improve classroom management. Be sure to download your free set of promise posters found at the end of the post.

How We Talk to Kids

When I first began teaching, I didn’t know how to talk to kids.

I quickly realized that on my first placement as a preservice teacher. I found myself in a kindergarten classroom in an urban setting. There was a lot going on in that room and I lacked the teacher language to be effective.

The other preservice teacher I was paired with had worked with kids before. She seemed to know how to talk to them. She kept saying, “You need to sit down.” “You need to listen.” “You need to do your work.”

I started using those words too because I didn’t have anything better.

Those words and others stayed with me for a long time. They became my default setting.

Eventually, I had to realize that the language I was using, just didn’t work. Telling kids that they “need” to do something, was based on my need, not theirs, and it was ultimately ineffective.

Using Classroom Rules to Form Better Teacher Language

Over the years, I’ve built a “teacher language” tool box that prioritizes relationships and mutual respect. Many of these tools were developed when I became more intentional about the words I chose for my kindergarten classroom rules. In this post, I share how choosing a motto and set of rules and affirmations, helped me make that transition to better teacher talk.

Choose a Class Motto

Before choosing our kindergarten classroom rules, I decided to identify an overarching motto that defined a way of being in our classroom. A motto is defined as a a short sentence or phrase chosen as encapsulating the beliefs or ideals guiding an individual, family, or institution.

For the children, I define this as important words we carry in our heads and in our hearts.

Creating a motto and classroom rules in kindergarten

Narrowing down my beliefs to just a few short words was challenging, but also super powerful. If forced me to think about what was most important to me and to visualize the type of classroom culture and community I wanted to create.

creating a class motto and rules in kindergarten

Over the years, I’ve used different mottos including “be your best,” “treat others as you want to be treated,” and “other people matter.” In all cases, those guiding words were put up on our walls, repeated often and hopefully children carried with children when they left kindergarten.

Identify a Set of Broad Classroom Rules

Once I decided on our motto, I wanted to create classroom rules that would help us live it. I knew the rules needed to be simple, clear, and use as few words as possible. I chose to repeat the phrase, “We take good care of,” with each rule to keep things consistent and make them easier for children to understand.

Kindergarten chart of classroom rules and promises

Before introducing the rules, we learned what that phrase meant and drew pictures of things that we already knew how to “take good care of.”

Once they understand that, we explored what it meant to take good care of ourselves, each other, our learning space, and the Earth. These four rules were broad enough to include all aspects of our relationships and I knew that any specific behaviors that I would need to address would fit under one of them.

Break Down Rules Into Behaviors

For each rule, I broke them down further into behaviors, or affirmations as we call them, to be extremely explicit about what each rule looked and sounded like in our classroom. While the rules themselves, all began with the word, “we,” the affirmations began with “I,” to help children see that they have an individual responsibility, as a member of our classroom community, to follow each rule.

In talking with children about their behavior, it is these affirmations that I find myself repeating or prompting them to remember.

For example, when a child asks me to zip their coat, and I know they can do it, I might say, “Remember, we do things for ourselves.” Or when a child fails to communicate that they weren’t given a supply that was being passed out, I will remind them to “ask for what they need.”

Kindergarten Classroom Rules vs. Promises

While I use the term classroom rules throughout this post, I actually call them promises with the children. This is because the word “rules,” seems very one-sided and authoritative, whereas a promise or agreement implies a shared understanding between two or more people.

To help children understand that relational piece, I build in time at the beginning of the year to explore the meaning of a promise. I share my “teacher’s promise,” that I make to my principal and their families.

Then, we learn about “broken promises,” and the invisible string that ties each of us together. I show them that when someone breaks their promise, the string is cut, and the two people need to come together to try to tie the string back together again. They see that when there is too many knots in the string, it becomes more and more difficult for that relationship to be strong.

Live Your Classroom Rules

Classroom rules are not just something we do at the beginning of the year and then forget about. Each morning we recite our class promises to ourselves, each other, our learning space, and the Earth.

child sharing class rules in kindergarten

The language of these promises and affirmations is used throughout the day in the form of both compliments and reminders. If children are having difficulty with one or more of their promises, I send home notes that begin with the words, “Today I had trouble with….” to let families know that it is something this child is working to improve.

Creating Your Own Kindergarten Classroom Rules

As classroom teachers, we are not given a manual that teaches us how to talk to our kids.

But how we talk to them matters.

For me, being more intentional about my teacher talk began by taking a good look at my classroom rules and choosing words that reflected my beliefs, matched the vision I had for my classroom culture, and most importantly, the ones I wanted to hear myself saying out loud.

Try following these steps in creating your own classroom rules:

Choose a motto that reflects important words that match the vision you have for your classroom culture.
Identify a few broad-reaching rules that will help you and the children live that motto. Keep the language clear, consistent, and simple. You can find a FREE set of my Promise Posters HERE.
Break down your rules into behaviors or affirmations that will help children know what that rule looks and sounds like. Choose language that you might use in helping children manage their own behavior.
Decide what to call your rules. Should they be rules, promises, agreements, or something else.
Find ways to make your classroom rules a part of your everyday such as reciting them during morning meeting or highlighting children’s behaviors that show them “living” those rules.

How I fully roll out our classroom motto and promises can be found in Deck #3 of the Kindergarten Kick-Off Digital Decks.

It is one of 6 decks that can be combined to build your first day of school and beyond.