Classroom Rules

Today was our first day of school. In addition to unpacking supplies, getting to know each other, and completing beginning of the year assessments we needed some rules!

Last year we implemented PBIS at our school. It is this amazing behavior management system that is school wide. We decided that as a school our motto would be "Be Your Best!"  In order to do that at school we wanted to have our students always be respectful, responsible, and safe.

I have always had the students help me create our classroom rules in order to give them a sense of ownership in the classroom. This year I had them create classroom rules, only this year they had to be centered around our three qualities. Here is how it worked.

I start by passing out lined paper to pairs of students. I then had them write Respectful, Responsible and Safe with two bullet points under each.  Next, with their elbow partners they had to fill in two ways to do that in the classroom.

After that we created a master list on the board to look for some common themes in the ideas they came up with. Ones that are circled are the ones where we saw a common theme.

 Lastly, I wrote the rules out and they are proudly displayed in the classroom.

Here is the bulletin board I created to show off when they are being their best!