A Back to School ELA lesson that your students will absolutely love.

I wanted to share with you a great idea for setting up your classroom rules.  The great thing about this lesson is that I have a set for Kindergarten, and a set for older primary students as well.  

First you need to read the book David Goes to School by David Shannon.

It’s available on Amazon.

In the book David’s Teacher say “No Running, No Pushing…”

In my classroom I like to use positive phrases when setting up the classroom rules.

I have 5 classroom rules:

Use nice words

Use a quiet voice

Walk carefully

Share the toys and supplies

Play carefully

These rules have served me well over the past 25 years.  And I really like the fact that they don’t use the word ‘no’.  So after reading David goes to school, I brainstorm with the class ways they can say what the teacher is telling David, without using the word “no”.

Then we make the craftivity below to create a bulletin board showing their knowledge of the class rules.  I like it when they use ‘I can’ statements.  Like “I can walk carefully”, or “I can share my toys”.

CLICK HERE

for the instructions and templates.

Then get them to cut out a speech bubble and write down one of the phrases from the class brainstorm.  It can be one of my 5 rules above or any of the other positive statements that the class came up with.