Rules in School

"Rule Creation" is one of the primary Classroom Practices within the Responsive Classroom Approach.  I've created class rules with almost all of my classes, but this year I took a slightly different approach.  Instead of jumping right into "what rules do we need?" I began by asking the kiddos to think about why we come to school and what we want to accomplish together.  We went through this process as adult learners at the Responsive Classroom Course this summer, and I found that it gave more purpose to the rule creation routine that I had had before.

I started on Day 2 by asking the firsties, "Why do we come to School?"  Their answers cracked me up; things like "to become a good adult," "to do plusses," and "to teach kids." After we had established our purpose for being at school in general, we thought about what types of school work we might do in First Grade. We made a list (I forgot to take a picture) of things like subtraction, art, field trips, and writing stories.  The kiddos created individual "hopes and dreams" for their first grade year based off of this list.

Then we got to the step of thinking about rules.  I reminded the kiddos about all of their goals and all the things that we hoped we would get to do together in first grade.  I asked them to think about how we would need to work together to reach those goals -- what rules would we need to be successful?  They came up with a very comprehensive list ;)

After we had a complete list we went through my favorite task of grouping the possible rules together.  I circled each of the topics in a different color and we came up with an all-encompassing rule to describe the topic.  For instance, "never hit," "tie your shoe laces," and "don't run" became "Keep Yourself and Others Safe."  "Don't lie," "don't bully" and "talk nicely" became "Use Kind Words."

During this process, I always guide the kiddos toward the rules that I want our class to use. For the last 3 years, I have ended up with the same 5 rules.  This year, we decided to make our 5th rule "Work Hard."  I'm still not sure if I'm thrilled with the switch because the "take care of your classroom and school" rule was so helpful in the past; however I like that now we have a rule that directs our cognitive work.  By now, the kiddos are getting comfortable with the language of the rules and I just love hearing them remind each other to "use kind words" and "follow directions."