Keep an orderly classroom with these three easy rules for your kiddos to remember!
Depending on your size of class and the ages of your students, classrooms inevitably become chaotic, messy, and noisy!
And no matter what type of classroom you have — whether at school, at church, or at home — it is always great to have some simple rules in place that you can fall back on when things are getting a little rowdy!
There are tons of great tips and tricks out there for this, but here are three easy rules that have worked for me in classrooms (especially those with younger children).
My system gets the whole body involved so that memory reinforcement comes in three ways:
- visually (through an eye-catching graphic that you can add front and center in your classroom),
- audibly (by the teacher saying the rules out loud and having the students repeat them)
- tangibly (use the hand motions).
So, without further ado, here are the rules along with a few graphics to go with them for you to download for FREE and print out to decorate your classroom!
- Hands and Feet to Yourself — For this one, you clap your hands, stomp your feet, and then place everything in your lap and under the desk/table. This movement helps get out some of the wiggles, unifies the class by getting everyone’s attention, and then settles everyone down into their position.
- Mouth Closed –Next, pinch your lips closed tight, and look around the room to make sure everyone else’s lips are closed tight, too. Remind your students to keep their mouths closed tight so that they don’t miss anything in the lesson you are about to teach!
- Ears Open — Finally, cup your ears and have everyone else do the same. You can remind your students that they have one mouth to speak, but two ears to listen, so it is DOUBLE important to listen to what the teacher has to say.
These may seem like really obvious rules, but you would be surprised by how far a simple reminder goes, especially in a big classroom full of energetic little kids! These rules not only reinforce different memory strategies, but also make students aware of their bodies and what they are doing with them, which often helps to refocus their little minds as they settle in for the next portion of class time.
Now, feel free to download these FREE graphics to help reinforce your rules VISUALLY in your classroom by printing them out and hanging them up in a prominent place! Just pick whichever one fits your classroom best!
Find more free classroom materials at our FREE SHOP!
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