But it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes plenty of daily practice, redirection, and reinforcement from the teacher. When you have well established rules and expectations you’ll have students who are confident problem solvers working collaboratively with others. If your goal is for students to make good choices, whether they’re with you in the classroom or outside the classroom, then establishing expectations should be your top priority from the very first day of school. Setting expectations for behavior is a form of social development that directly affects all learning in the classroom. Without clear expectations you’ll have more behavior problems and classroom management issues – yikes! Teaching expectations is just as important as teaching letters and numbers in preschool. Teaching rules and expectations go hand-in-hand. Now that you know the steps to take when introducing the rules, and the types of rules to use, let’s look at how you can establish expectations in your preschool classroom. You can use these resources during circle time, small group time, or anywhere in your school building.

Included in the classroom rules kit is a printable rules poster, rules cards, and books you can use to make teaching the rules to your preschool children easier. Here are a few simple tips to help make learning the rules much easier for your students. Establishing rock solid rules and expectations is important for creating a successful classroom environment where your little learners can thrive. It’s no secret that teaching young children to follow your classroom rules and expectations isn’t easy.

Of course, we’ll continue to review the rules daily with lots of redirection and reminders throughout the year. By the end of the first week of school I’ve introduced the most important rules to my students and we can move on to establishing expectations. I start with eyes on the very first day of school and add a new one each day. I like to start by introducing each rule separately, not all at once to reduce overwhelm and frustration. Picture cues can also help you quickly and easily remind children of the rules when necessary. Using visual picture cues is very helpful for all children, but they’re especially helpful for students with special needs and dual language learners. You’ll have the most success getting your students to follow the rules if you use concrete rules which can be easily shown to your students with pictures.

There’s plenty of time for your kids to learn big vocabulary words like responsible and respectful, but the rules shouldn’t be one of those times. Your rules will be more successful if you keep them short and simple to avoid confusion. What does kind look like? What does respectful look like? You may have one idea of what those words mean, but your colleagues, parents, and administrators may have different ideas. There’s nothing wrong with using any of those words with adults, but they mean absolutely nothing to young children. It can be easy to fall into step with your colleagues who teach older children and use rules like “be kind” or “be respectful.” And don’t even get me started on words like obey and responsible, those words are even more abstract and meaningless to young children. But don’t worry, you’ll find the answers to all your questions about establishing preschool classroom rules and expectations below, and more! There are several things to consider, such as how many rules should you have? How will you introduce the rules to your little learners? And that’s just the beginning. Are you looking for age-appropriate classroom rules for preschool or Pre-K? Establishing rules and expectations in your early childhood classroom can be tricky.

Free printable rulers for students