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You may just be starting up the school year, or you may be a few weeks in. Either way, this will be a post worth saving! If you find after the first couple of weeks of school that things aren’t flowing as smoothly as you would like, I suggest reflecting on where exactly the problems are stemming from. Most likely, you will find that you need to establish a few more routines and procedures for your students.
Routines and procedures are the backbone to having a smooth functioning school day. I’m not saying there won’t be other issues that affect the functioning of your school day, but making sure your students know the routines and procedures in your classroom will alleviate a lot of frustration for you and your students. You will, also, find that, once established, you will lose less instructional time, giving you back more time in your day to teach.
The order in which you introduce these routines and procedures will depend upon their importance. I am going to rank them in the order I would introduce them, but you can pick and choose what is most important to you!
Also, be sure that as you introduce them, you are explicitly teaching each one. You may, even, include a visual with step-by-step instructions. You will want your students to practice the new routine or procedure several times before expecting them to be able to do it independently at the correct time. So, without further ado, here they are!
First Day of School Routines & Procedures
1. Attention Getting Signal– This may be the MOST important procedure in your classroom. Choose ahead of time how you want to get your students to STOP what they are doing, and PAY ATTENTION to you. This could be a saying such as, “Macaroni & Cheese!” and your students reply, “Everybody Freeze!” It could, also, be ringing a wireless doorbell or chime. Here is a list of fun callbacks from Teach to Love Learning.
Whatever your signal will be, teach it to your students, and tell them what is expected of them when the signal happens. Then, practice it. A fun way to practice is with music. Play the music, then use the signal, and pause the music. See if the students freeze. Play multiple rounds and praise the students when they get it right!
2. Lining Up- Teach your students how you want them to line up when called. Do you have dots for them to stand on? Do you want them to line up in number order? Is there a certain way you want them to stand, like one hand on the hip and the other on the lip? Is there a line up song you want them to sing before you all venture out into the hall? Make those decisions ahead of time, then teach this procedure to your students.
3. Walking in the Hall– Next, actually go out into the hall and practice walking down the hall. Check spacing, not too close and no large gaps. Establish stopping points as you go through the building, so the first person will know where to stop and wait. And be sure to point out that there is no talking in the hall.
4. Using the Bathroom– Teach your students what you want them to do if they need to use the bathroom. Is there a hand signal? Does the student grab a bathroom pass? Can they just get up and go, if no one is in there? Then, go over the steps for using the bathroom appropriately, ending with hand washing.
5. Cafeteria– Your students will need to know what is expected in the cafeteria. Go in and practice before lunch, if you can.
6. Recess– Explain how students will get to recess, along with how they will know recess is over and where to line up. This can be practiced right before recess by allowing them to start walking out to recess and, then, calling them back with your signal. Do this 2-3x before allowing them to play.
7. Dismissal– Go over how dismissal will work both in your classroom and out in the halls. Do this with plenty of time before actual dismissal. This will help the end of your first day go a bit smoother.
First Week of School Routines & Procedures
1. Morning/Arrival Routine– Decide what students will do first thing when they come through the classroom doors. Do they need to place a folder in a basket? Fill a water bottle? Have morning work to complete? Teach them the steps in this routine, then just like with all the others, practice it. One student can model it, then you could have small groups model it. I would recommend having a slide on the board each morning or poster up with the routine, so students can refer to it when they forget.
2. Pencil Sharpening– Think about the steps you want your students to take if they need a sharpened pencil. Is there a certain time you will allow them to do it, or will you have two cups out for the broken/sharpened pencils? Then, teach your students this procedure. This is one that often gets overlooked, but is a great time saver.
3. Getting a Drink of Water– May seem like a small thing, but can turn into a big thing without a procedure in place. The procedure for this will depend on if your students are allowed water bottles in the class and, also, if they need to go into the hall to use the drinking fountain.
4. Getting Out/Putting Away Materials– If there are a lot of textbooks, you may want a routine in place for getting them out as well as putting them away. The same could be said for center activities, but that could be a different routine.
5. How to Ask a Question/Share a Statement– Model hand raising. The right way and the wrong way.
Other Possible Routines & Procedures
1. Using the Classroom Library– If your students will independently be using your classroom library, teach them how to take books out and how to put them back in the correct spot.
2. Rotations/Centers– Detail what independent work time will look like while you meet with small groups. Practice this in advance of starting teacher-led small groups. As you practice, begin to reduce the time you spend interacting with independently working students. You want to get to a monitoring status. Then, you will have less interruptions once you begin working with your small groups.
3. Absent Work– Have a plan in place for students to get their missed work. This will depend on the grade you teach on how much responsibily the absent student will have in getting the work.
4. Using a Safe Place/Calm Down Area– Many classrooms have a spot in their classroom where overstimulated students can go to calm down. These areas may have calm down tools such as fidget toys, breathing boards, a comfy seat, and, possibly, a timer. You will want a clear routine for what a student will do if they need to use the Safe Place. By addressing this before any student is in a highly sensitive state may help them not to interrupt classroom learning as much. I know this is not always the case, but this should reduce it.
Closing
In the first few weeks of school, you will constantly be practicing and reviewing these routines and procedures with your students. You want them to become ingrained in your students, so they will just do them with very little to no reminders. Also, make sure to review and practice them again after any long breaks from school. This usually occurs after the Winter Holiday Break and Spring Break. We don’t want them to be able to give an excuse for not following the routine or procedure with, “I don’t remember.”
Please add in the comments any additional routines or procedures that are missing from this list and I will add them on! If you liked this post and need some ideas for teaching expectations check out my post 8 Short & Enagaging Videos for Teaching Classroom Expectations.