Early Childhood Winning Ideas Contest: Top 5 Ideas for Creating Classroom Rules

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Congratulations to the winners of our Early Childhood Winning Ideas Contest! Each of these entrants - teachers just like you - won $50 in Scholastic products for sharing their ideas. Thanks to everyone who submitted to the contest. And remember to check the latest contest topic for more chances to win!

1. Defining Rules Game
By Terri Herman

With 4 year olds, you have to be creative to make "rules" interesting. Sometime during the first week, we play the "What if" game. We start during our circle time and tell them we are going to play a guessing game about our classroom called "What If". This always perks up the attention - they love games. Then I begin with, "What if we never cleaned up the toys after free play time in our centers?" I always elaborate on the size of the mess, what our class really does look like during the playtime. I am always amazed that the children can reason that our floors would be cluttered, people would fall over the toys, things would get broken, and it would be a mess! And most of all it would be hard to play the next day. Another question would be: "What if everyone in our class took a toy home in their pocket or backpack everyday?" They realize that we would run out of toys very quickly! Many also realize that others would miss toys if they were taken home. I also emphasize that if someone does take a toy home, they can just bring it back, no questions asked. It is truly wonderful to have a child come in to our class in the morning, carrying a toy they accidentally took home and know that I will say "thank you"!

We also have signals, such as lights go out (we have 2 large windows in our classroom, so it's not too dark) to signal changes in our day, such as clean-up time, snack-time is over - usually the line leader for the day is in charge of this responsibility. I've found over the years that children really do better if there is a secure routine and structure to their day. They respond with creatively playing, responsibly cleaning-up, and carefully listening, not to miss the next fun activity!

2. Classroom Rules
By Annette Cunnius

I teach children with Autism at a private school.  I lead a "social skills" group every Monday.  In this group our "Good Listening Rules" are reinforced through various scenarios that play out throughout the day. As you know the biggest deficit of children on the spectrum is social relatedness. So one social skills lesson would be playing "with" friends and "talking" to friends while playing. 3 steps are followed:  Discuss, Demonstrate, and Do. I discuss what is expected. A demonstration is played out by the teachers. The kids get a big kick out of seeing them "not" playing together or ignoring their attempts to get the others attention. The students are then asked what was wrong with that scene and how to correct. Then a proper demonstration is given. Students then act out the appropriate way to play and interact.

3. Classroom Rules
By: Jennifer Hanner

I am a pre-k teacher and every year in October, during fire safety week, is when I make the classroom rules with my class. During circle time I talk to the children about how we can make our classroom a safe place for us to learn. I let everyone one go around and tell me something that they think can make us a safe place. I then talk to them, to get them to come up with a classroom so that they think they came up with the rule. (I may end up with a lot of rules, but I filter them and combined them and tell the children why I combined them.) The children get very excited that they made a classroom rule. I then write it on poster board and put a photo of the rule to go with it. Then I have all the children sign it and we hang it up at circle time. Then every once in a while during circle time, I ask the children if they remember our class rules and if they have been following them, or if they think we should add anymore or change any of them.

4. Introducing Classroom Rules in Kindergarten
By Stephanie Campana

In kindergarten, this is the first time a lot of children have been introduced to rules in a collective, social setting.  Because a lot of them do not know some of the "appropriate" behaviors in a school setting, it is important to explicitly discuss the classroom rules. At the beginning of the year I like to use the book Don't Eat the Teacher to introduce classroom rules. It is a story about a shark going to school for the first time. When the main character gets excited he has a tendency to bite things, so his parent reminds him not to eat the teacher. The story continues to go through the school day outlining all the exciting things that happen in school: art projects, creative movement, story time, recess, etc. Each time, the shark takes a big CRUNCH out of something. It is very humorous to even the youngest of minds, but it leads very well into a discussion about classroom rules. I usually say something like, "In our story, the shark's classroom is a lot like our classroom. We do a lot of exciting things in school, too. One thing that is different, though, is that kids don't eat their teachers like a shark might!  Sharks have different rules than kids. What kind of rules do you think it's important for kids to follow?" Then we begin to brainstorm a list of ways to keep ourselves safe, productive, happy, and kind. 

When children give ideas such as "Don't hit," I am always sure to rephrase it in a positive way to sound something like, "Keep your hands with your own body." It's a shame that kids are already used to hearing what NOT to do, instead of what to do. Throughout that first week of school, I keep particular watch on students following school rules. If I "catch" someone demonstrating one of our brainstormed rules, I snap a picture of it on my camera and then post it alongside the rule. This gives the children a constant reminder of what it looks like (very important in Early Childhood!) to follow that rule. Before long each co-created rule has a visual cue to go along with it and the "Rules" sign is ready to be laminated. It is very helpful later on in the year - when the children settle down enough to get wild - to show the children that they could follow these rules when they were (in their eyes) "a lot" younger.  It helps the children to internalize self-control and responsibility!

5. Kindergarten Rules!
By: Melissa Haile

The first week of school is when I introduce the classroom rules. I begin by reading several books by David Shannon, No David, David Goes to School, and David Gets in Trouble. Throughout the week, as I discuss the David character with my kindergarten students, we also discuss ways David could have behaved better and what he should have done in each story. As we chart all the good things David should have done, I begin to categorize all of the behaviors and show the students how David could have behaved better if he would have known three basic rules: Be Nice, Be Safe, Listen.

At the end of the week the students make the first classroom big book by authoring a new story, "Yes David!" Each student writes “Yes” on the page and illustrates a picture showing David doing something nice and appropriate in the classroom (raising his hand, walking, sitting nicely, sharing, using a quiet voice). I make a huge poster with die-cut letters and number each rule. The students and I read the three basic rules daily throughout the year. When a student does something inappropriate I immediately ask them which rule they think they broke and the student can easily identify one of the rules and tell me how it applies. With kindergarten students I think it is important to have only three simple rules that the students can read and remember.

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