5 Simple Kindergarten Rules to Support Effective Behavior

Do you want learn some rules to support effective behavior? I can’t wait to share these Kindergarten rules with all of you.

Although we all create (and hopefully hang on the wall) our own set of classroom rules, this set really got me to thinking about all that teachers have to do to teach students good behavior.

ESPECIALLY IN KINDERGARTEN

Those little four and five-year-old kiddos come to our schools each year at so many varying levels of growth, development, and maturity/immaturity.

Below are the rules my granddaughter shared with us a few years ago that they were tasked with memorizing the first week of School.

1. Listen when someone is speaking.

2. Follow Directions Quickly.

3. Raise Your Hand to Speak.

4. Respect Yourself, respect others, respect our school.

5. Be safe, be kind, be honest.

What a fabulous list of rules! These were the rules that my sweet granddaughter shared with us during her first week of Kindergarten. Of course, when it’s your own flesh and blood, you think its the best thing in the world.

Here is a peek at the video from YouTube, if you’d like to see my adorable granddaughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggpZW7-Ba3I

She shared this with all of us at her older brother’s winter-ball baseball practice (while I was a site principal of a different school), so of course I shared it with others at my school since she was so adorable reciting it.

I learned early on in my career to only list a few rules, and to keep them worded in the positive and not the negative.

You might also be interested in an article I wrote on effective instructional strategies. You can read it here:

7 Highly Effective Instructional Practice to Increase Student Engagement and Impress Your Principal.

But another reason that this list of five simple rules touched my heart was that although the list was short (only 5) it was able to cover all the bases of what teachers (and principals) expect in student behavior at school.

AND, it was written in such POSITIVE LANGUAGE.

LET’S REVIEW EACH ONE IN DETAIL HERE:

1. Listen When Someone is Talking.

What a smart teacher to list this one first; especially for Kindergarten students who aren’t used to having to listen quietly while a teacher talks. Or wait for other students to have their “say” before cutting them off.

SMART TEACHER! I’m sure she spends time every single day reminding students about this rule.

2. Follow Directions Quickly.

I don’t know if you noticed in the video that there are hand motions for each rule (or part of a rule) that the students are taught along with the rule.

For this rule…even though she messed up… she was pantomiming quick walking with her arms moving quickly. Again, CLEVER TEACHER!!

This little rule covers; lining up, clearing your desk, picking up art supplies, moving from the carpet to the desks, getting ready for dismissal, and probably quite a few more daily activities that happen in Kindergarten (as well as all other grade levels).

With Kindergarten students, as well as other grade levels, it is so important to have standard routines in place that you and the students follow without fail. You can download my Classroom Routines Checklist that I am sharing with subscribers for FREE. Just complete the form below and I will send it right off to you.

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3. Raise Your Hand to Speak.

While most classes have this rule up into college classes too, it is imperative to teach it well in Kindergarten. Otherwise, students will be interrupting each other and the teacher all the time.

I’m sure that it takes until January in most Kindergarten classes to have a majority of students following this rule regularly.

So when a little Kindergarten student starts talking during another student’s answer, the teacher just needs to remind her about rules #1 and #3. Because right then she was supposed to be listening and she also forgot to raise her hand to have a turn.

4. Respect Yourself, Respect Others, Respect the School.

I like the fact that the teacher listed “respect yourself” first here. I wish I had been in the class to hear how the teacher explained this part of Rule #4. It is actually a higher level thinking part since the student has to figure out why a particular action is not respectful of himself.

“Respect Others” would be fairly simple to explain because it covers; no touching, no hitting, no bad words, don’t be mean, respect the flag, etc. This part of the rule covers so many important things.

“Respect the School” covers vandalism, taking care of the grounds, the restrooms, your classroom, your books. Not being unruly (or throwing things) in the cafeteria. And I’m sure other such things.

5. Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Honest!

I really like that fact that this final rule focused completely on the student.

Of the three listed, two are reminding the student that the teacher cares about them; be safe & be honest!! How nice that must feel for those little 5-year old children. I’m still telling my own kids who are now in their late 20’s and early 30’s to BE SAFE!

And the only one that is a reminder to “be good” is the “BE KIND” one; and even that one sounds nice. BUT that one is powerful because it has to do with making and keeping friends, playing nicely, not being a bully, and all those other people skills.

Then finally, to have “BE HONEST!” as the final thing each student says is super powerful and super positive.

When I was a principal at the end of the morning announcements I would always tell the students “Have a good day, or not, the choice is yours.” I got this saying from a mentor principal that I trained under as an Intern.

He was well respected; he and I both liked the message that this sent to students about having a positive attitude, making good choices, and that when you choose to misbehave you are also choosing the consequence that goes with the misbehavior.

Tell me one of your powerful rules; do you think you need to tweak it a little? Why did you select that one as one of your powerful ones? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

So, my Teacher friends…..I will borrow a rule to end with

“Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Honest!”

So stay in control of your students’ behavior by providing effective classroom rules.

Your Teacher Buddy