At the beginning of the school year I spend the first two weeks of school teaching school and classroom rules and procedures. I like to teach my students about class rules, procedures, community building and character using children's literature books followed by an activity that will help them remember what we learned. For example, I read the Rainbow Fish to teach the students the importance of sharing. After reading the book I have the students share ways that they can share with another in the classroom and I record their ideas on chart paper.
The picture of the Rainbow Fish was obtained fromPlease share an idea/activity that you use in your classroom to teach rules and procedures or how you teach rules and procedures in your class.
I use the book David Goes to School by David Shannon in my class at the beginning of the school year. The students love the illustrations and after reading the book, I have the students add their own page to a new book about behaving at school. This is the first class book that we place in our class library to refer to throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteI love your book choice and what a great idea to have the students add to the book to learn about behavior. This lesson allows students to really understand rules of behavior and they are left with a great class book at the conclusion of the lesson. Great avtivity!:)
I always read Chrysanthemum. It is a very cute book about unique names and why students should be respectful of eachother's differences. I usually let the students decorate their own pre-printed name tag for their desk. I give them a variety of supplies, but allow them a lot of freedom to display their creativity. It is also helpful in the students learning eachother's names.
ReplyDeleteI like to read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. It is a good way to talk about how students should treat one another. The girls can really start being mean to each other in the third grade, it's crazy!
ReplyDeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteI also read Chrysanthemum and discuss uniqueness and differences among people. Another fun activity that I tried last year was to dicut the letters of each student's name, have the students decorate the letters in colors and pictures of things they like and then connect the letters with string to create a mobile of their name. It was fun to see the different ways students decorated the letters and in presentation of the names the students learned alot about one another. The dicuts were time consuming I have to admit but it was worth it.
Debra,
ReplyDeleteI have never read the book The Hundred Dresses. I will have to look at that one and see if I think I could use it in my classroom to teach character at the beginning of the school year. Thanks for the suggestion. I did some field experience in a third grade classroom for one semester and I know what you mean about students at this age getting attitudes with one another.
To teach rules, I let my students make up the rules of the class. Each student must make up two rules, if I agree with the rule and the students agree with the rule we will use the rule for our classroom.
ReplyDeleteIt is always a good idea to allow the students to help you come up with the class rules becuase when they are able to take part in the creation it makes the rules more meaningful to them.
ReplyDelete