Establishing Classroom Rules for Kindergarten

Helping students learn to listen to you as a teacher in the first weeks of kindergarten is particularly important - especially for safety and care. Early in the school year you will be implementing many oral language activities to help your students get used to your voice, your expectations and your role as their teacher. 

Perfect for the first days on Kindergarten, are:

• action rhyme finger plays
• simple clapping call-and-respond games that combine learning class names and listening -  just clap as you call - Thank- you-Jo-sh-u-a for example, and add a clap to every syllable. The children clap and say this back. 

After a few days in Kindergarten, establish some classroom rules with the class. 

• discuss what a rule is
• talk about their homes and family rules. 
• discuss the consequences that occur when they break rules and 
• be sensitive to the social and cultural context of your school

Making Class Rules in Kindergarten

• take suggestions for a set of rules in ‘our’ classroom
• write them all down on chart paper (quickly draw matching pictures as most cannot read yet)
• take all suggestions and then work through the list, verbally grouping the similar rules e.g. a student might say that a good rule to have in the classroom is ‘do not run’ and another might say ‘don’t run with scissors’….. 
• Suggest to the students that these two ideas might be grouped together as ‘we move safely in the classroom
• Most ideas that are suggested by students can be grouped into a short list of basic rules that are broad enough to cover lots of things but specific enough to promote positive behaviour.

For kindergarten we suggest having the rules:

• as short and specific as possible (the students need to understand the language -they will not understand things like “responsibility” and “respect” early in the school year). You can revise your rules later in the year if neede
• displayed with a little picture to represent the behaviour
• displayed clearly at the front of the classroom on a chart that is next to a chart that outlines the consequences of breaking rule
• written in positive language (e.g. instead of ‘don’t run’ – have a rule ‘we move safely’)

We have a ‘Simple Classroom Rules’ packet for sale on TpT. This is a printable resource kit that includes the pieces you can print to make a Classroom Rules Display for your own classroom. You can use the pieces included in this file to paste on your own cardboard poster, classroom door, window or noticeboard.This pdf file contains one title "Our Classroom Rules" and six colourful and simple rules

1. try hard
2. share
3. care
4. listen
5. be nice
6. be safe

Each rules has a colourful picture to help those students not able to read yet.

We have a version is soft bright colors too:

And a set perfect for small spaces:

Good luck setting your classroom expectations and rules, done right they can save you many hours of management into the school year and lay a solid foundation for positive learning.