Creating Our Class Rules

A couple weeks into the school year we began talking about what our hopes and dreams might be for the new school year.  Some of us were looking forward to reading more books, others were excited to write poetry and nonfiction books, and many students were excited to perform science experiments.  Some second graders were hoping to make more friends or learn how to share and collaborate with others.  We brainstormed and charted a list, coming back to it every so often to revise our goals for the year.  After about a week, students drew pictures of their own Hope & Dream and wrote a few sentences about it.  We shared our Hopes & Dreams with one another and displayed them on our bookshelf.  We discussed how this will be one of several goals we create throughout the school year, and that we will be revisiting our initial Hope & Dream to see if we've reached our goal and/or if we need to revise it.

Our Hopes & Dreams framed & displayed on our Library shelf.  The other side showcases their writing.

Once we each came up with a Hope & Dream, we began to discuss what class rules we will need to fulfill our goals.  We brainstormed as a class and came up with a long list of rules, ranging from "Do your work" to "Don't hurt other kids' feelings."  After a few days of brainstorming, we went over our list and thought about how to frame our rules in the positive.  "Don't hurt other kids' feelings" became "Be kind to each other."  We noticed that each rule could fit under the following categories: "Self", "Others", and "Environment."  After organizing our rules into each of these categories, we thought of how we could condense the rules under each heading into just one rule (it's easier to remember just a few rather than 20!).  We came up with the following three:  Take care of everyone, Take care of yourself, and Use materials nicely and safely.

Our 3 Class Rules, with student illustrations of what it looks like to be following each of these rules

Since formulating our rules, we've been constantly referring to them, pointing out when we see students following them and also forgetting about and breaking them.  Louise and Caroline find opportunities to model the rules for students and often ask kids to model doing the same.  We take the time to reflect throughout the day as to whether we are following the rules as a class, what we're doing well and what we need to work on.  We continue to remind them that together as a class we've created these rules in order to fulfill our Hopes and Dreams and need to take them seriously.

Please ask your child about our class rules... perhaps he or she can explain them to you and reflect on whether they see students following the rules during the school day.

Happy long weekend:)