How to Create Classroom Rules for Preschool -

How to Create Classroom Rules for Preschool

and use them as a management tool for your classroom

The new school year starts, and a new group of preschoolers with many different personalities comes with it. Some are quiet and attentive, some are observant and excited, some are impulsive and little daredevils, and that’s okay. Still, when you think that safety is a priority, you must establish rules that will set the tone in your classroom from the beginning.

Preschoolers need to know what is expected of them consistently. This improves their social skills and emotional development and reduces behavioral problems. Because of this, discuss and create the classroom rules on the first day, then review them every day after.

The classroom rules should be simple and created with your students. This practice helps them develop a sense of belonging and importance and take ownership of the rules, which promotes a better learning environment.

Creating classroom rules should not be difficult or complicated. Here are some suggestions that might help.

Steps to Create Classroom Rules

First, think about the rules you want to address and have your students follow to guide your preschoolers when it’s time to set them up.

Create a List with Your Preschoolers

To be more effective, involve your class in creating the rules. For example, you can use circle time to talk to your preschoolers about the classroom rules and involve them in writing them. This way, you will build the foundation for your school family, promote a strong sense of classroom community for your children, and support positive social behaviors.

Keep It Simple

Rules must be simple. It is not recommended to use more than four or five rules. That way, you can be sure that your preschoolers will understand and learn them, but make sure to explain how their behaviors might affect themselves, their friends, and their classroom.

Use plenty of examples, such as:

“If you step on the toys, you can break them or trip and hurt yourself.”
“If you push your friend down the slide, she might get hurt.”
“How will you feel if somebody hurt you? Well, if you hurt your friend, he will feel like that”.

You get the picture. Preschoolers understand more than you think if you talk to them clearly and with plenty of examples.

Use Positive Language

Choose your words carefully to make your rules sound positive and easy to understand. Using long phrases or complex language will confuse your preschoolers, and they will see those rules as negative.

What I mean by that is that instead of saying things like “Don’t run”, you can say “Walking Feet”, or “Don’t hit”, you can say “Gentle Hands”. You are saying the same thing, but the positive approach sounds wholly different and, well….. positive.

Include Print and Pictures

Remember that preschoolers do not read yet. Use print (words) and pictures (visuals) together to help your preschoolers associate the rules with the corresponding actions, just like you do with your labels.

Some Ideas for Rules

Here are some samples of standard rules that you can use in your classroom:

Use Inside Voices
Have Watching Eyes
Use Walking Feet
Have Listening Ears
Use Gentle Hands
Use Kind Words
Clean Up Centers
Play Safely
Be a Good Friend
Make Good Choices

You and your students must decide what rules work for your classroom, but if you need some help in the meantime, here are some free posters I created for this purpose.

How to Explain and Introduce the Rules

Once you and your preschoolers write down the rules you will use, decide how you will address them and what visuals you would like to use. Again, children are more likely to follow the rules if you let them be part of the process because they will take ownership and responsibility – they will also help you remind their friends, making your job easier. Don’t forget to be consistent, and soon you will have a classroom community where everybody helps everybody because they are all actively involved in creating rules.

Explain Each Rule

Remember that children will not learn the rules right away. You will need to be consistent in reviewing and reminding them of the rules every morning and whenever you see someone breaking one. It is an excellent practice to review each rule individually and why it is needed using examples. After you do this for several days in a row, you can start using circle time to ask questions such as: “Why do we use walking feet?” “Why do we use gentle hands? This will help your children better understand the specific behaviors associated with each rule.

Post Your Classroom Rules

To complete the process, make a poster with the rules you will use (don’t forget the visuals) and post it on your classroom walls. Having a constant reminder will help the children (and you) remember them, reinforcing your daily reviews.

How to Enforce Classroom Rules

Okay. This is the tricky part. I don’t think any classroom in the world will work like magic in a short period. I haven’t seen anyone in more than 40 years of education, and if you know about one, please let me know! Preschoolers will test their boundaries (and your patience) constantly. The only thing you can do, again, is to be consistent. This is an ongoing battle, but I promise that you will harvest the fruits down the road. Some of your children will turn into reminders, others into enforcers (at least they will try), and overall, they will learn the rules, even the ones that will break them regardless.

Nevertheless, these are some suggestions that might help you:

Have children wash their hands when they enter the classroom in the morning, before and after eating or using the sensory table, and after being in the playground (safety rule).

Please do not allow your children to change centers before they clean up. Remind them they are responsible for cleaning up after they finish or when they spill something, such as the contents of the sensory table (clean-up rule). It will help tremendously if you place small toys in tubs or bins and label them with a word and image of what belongs there.

Do not throw their plates, cups, and napkins in the trash can. Have them do it themselves (clean-up rule).

Do not allow them to run in the classroom. If they do, remind them that they must have “walking feet” if they are inside the building (safety rule).

Teach them to use “inside voices” when talking inside the classroom and raise their hands if they want to say or ask something during circle or storytime. This rule has kept me sane for as long as I’ve taught.

Teach them not to touch another child’s work without asking if they can play as well (good friend rule).

Teach them to take care of books and other classroom objects, and if they don’t know how to use something, to ask you (playing safe rule).

Reinforce Positive Behaviors Only

Negative attention produces a negative response. Always be positive in everything you do, and be sweet and gentle but firm when you have to remind one of your children about your classroom rules. Never make your children feel embarrassed or belittled; redirect them on the right path. It is very important to carve out some time to give every child one-on-one attention to gain your child’s trust and respect. Once you do that, it will be much easier to prevent undesirable behaviors.

Read Stories

I love books. I think there should be some kind of law that requires children to read. It is one of the most important things teachers and parents can do for their children. Reading not only gives your children a foundation in reading and writing, but also helps them understand things that would otherwise be more difficult, since it presents scenarios in print and pictures that help children imagine and internalize what they’re reading.

Okay, you know what I’m trying to say… read stories with characters who break rules, ask your children open-ended questions about their own experiences and what they think will happen next, then read what the story says. This will give your preschoolers vivid examples of what to do and what not to do.

Here are some of my favorite books to tackle the subject of rules:

The Grouchy Ladybug by Erick Carle teaches children the essential concepts of time, size, shape, and the benefits of friendship and good manners.

Best Behavior by Patricia Hegarty and Sakshi Mangal. This book follows an adorable cast of characters throughout the day as they learn to be kind, considerate, and caring in this cheerful and colorful rhyming book.

All About Feelings by Felicity Brooks is a fun, friendly, and reassuring introduction to feelings designed to help young children recognize, understand, and name how they’re feeling and learn to talk about and manage their emotions in helpful ways.

How to Be a Friend by Laurie Krasny Brown and Mark Brown. With playful full-color illustrations, this book helps children cope with everyday social situations and learn how to be a good friend and handle difficult situations.

Model the Rules

A good way to show what you are trying to teach is to model expected behavior, make good choices, and role-play different scenarios. For example, you can tell your students: “I use a quiet voice inside because I do not want to hurt anybody’s ears” or “I use walking feet because if I run, I may trip and hurt myself or hurt a friend.”

I know it is very time-consuming, but I promise you, in the end, you will be able to collect the rewards of your hard work. Remember, your kiddos need to be taught. They won’t learn just by hearing you talk. If you want your preschoolers to clean up on cue, you have to teach them how and where things go. If you want them to share, you have to take the time to teach them how.

You should never expect your preschoolers to follow the rules just because they are simple. Everything you want them to learn has to be taught, modeled, and role-played to succeed in the long run.

The Importance of Classroom Rules

Rules are fundamental to managing your classroom and establishing order, and they are a necessary and important tool for an effective teaching and learning process. They also help prevent problems.

You can simply tell your preschoolers what the rules are, but by letting them decide with you what the rules are, you empower them, make those rules theirs, and build their commitment to following them. Classroom rules in preschool help your preschoolers make better choices, show appropriate behavior, and create a positive climate of mutual respect where they feel safe and ready to learn.

Things You Should NOT Do in Your Preschool Classroom

Classroom rules should be effective, and the best way to do that is to teach children to take responsibility for their actions, make good choices, and follow through.

Remember that it is very important to create a climate in your classroom that promotes mutual respect, safety, and being noticed, where everybody feels like a family, cares for each other, and displays empathy. To accomplish this, there are certain things that, in my opinion, you should never do, since they will disrupt the desirable atmosphere you want to create and promote the opposite behaviors.

The things you should never do or use are:

Time Out

When you use time out, you are reinforcing bad behaviors; it doesn’t teach anything and only makes children feel isolated, sadder, or angrier.

A better idea is to create a special corner or calming area in your classroom where children can go voluntarily when they need a moment to handle, regulate, and regain control of their emotions, and use the tools provided there to problem-solve and choose better options.

Some items you may want to include in this area are:

Soft stuffed animals.
Books about making better choices and having the best behaviors.
A small spray bottle with lavender water that they can squirt and smell (lavender has a very calming effect).
Soft texture and/or emoji pillows that children can hug or squeeze.
A tube of lavender or chamomile lotion that they can rub on themselves.

Behavior Charts

Behavior charts are inflexible and time-consuming because they require lots of prep time, complicated rules, and can feel punitive. These types of charts don’t accomplish or teach anything. They only make children feel pointed out, accused, and ashamed, which will have the opposite response to the one you are trying to accomplish.

The best approach is to give your preschoolers the tools they need to make better choices, feel accountable for their actions, build a personal connection with you, and solve problems.

Remember that by giving them choices, you are not only empowering them but also teaching them valuable life lessons they can internalize and use. When you acknowledge your children’s good behaviors, you reinforce these desirable actions and create a positive, powerful classroom environment.

Treasure Box

Treasure boxes work much like behavior charts, and they are also very expensive. You should never reward good behaviors because those are exactly the behaviors they should have when they follow the classroom rules.

Again, it is more effective to teach your preschoolers to make their own choices, with the reward being the good feelings they get from choosing to do what is right, and you take the time to acknowledge and praise those choices.

Last Thoughts

When you build a good relationship with your preschoolers and create a positive, safe, and nurturing classroom climate, your kiddos will follow the rules and try their best to do the right thing.

Never forget to give praise and point out when students are following the rules to teach them which behaviors are acceptable, encourage those behaviors, and develop the positive relationships I mentioned with your students, but always remember to be very specific and clear.

Next thing you know, your students not only will internalize these rules and correct themselves, but also help you remind their friends of those rules. I promise you it will be extremely rewarding to have your kiddos being kind, helping each other, and interacting positively.

Be healthy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,

P.S. I would love to know if you like this classroom poster or if you’d like me to modify it. Also, if you need something more specific for your classroom, please let me know. I would love to help in any way I can.