The first day of school is just around the corner, which means new and veteran teachers are prepping and searching for all the tips and tricks on teaching routines and procedures in the classroom. Elementary school is magical. It’s full of fun and excitement. It’s also extremely challenging and complex. Teaching our youngest learners is not for the faint of heart (honestly neither is teaching in general), but following the right steps can lead to experiencing magic over misery.
In this blog post, I partnered with my friend, Jordan, to give you some practical steps and practices that can help make the most out of your school year. Learn from my (Megan’s) mistakes and don’t take the first week of school lightly. Teaching routines and procedures in the classroom, along with all the other management tips at the beginning of they year will be a game changer, we’re sure!
Set up a Routine
Along with Jordan, I recruited the help of first grade teachers on Instagram for this post. The most popular piece of advice was this: Set up a routine quick and stick to it. Children, specifically young children, thrive when they know what to expect. When we make a classroom routine, we leave very little room for confusion. After time, students will learn the routine and be able to transition from one subject or activity to the other with minimal teacher interaction.
What I love about first grade routines is that they have very little understanding of time. When we have an odd schedule because of a field trip, assembly, early out, or any other interruption to our normal day, our routine stays the same, We do our morning play time, then calendar, followed by phonics every. single. day. What changes on crazy days is the time spent at each activity. The routine we have in place sets us up for success, even when we add to our day because they still know what to expect.
Here’s a helpful tip. Display your schedule somewhere in your classroom and have a marker that moves down the schedule as you progress throughout your day. This helps to give students a visual clue as to what comes next in the day.
Have a Procedure and Expectation for Everything.
When I say everything, I mean everything. Just like young students thrive on a routine, they also thrive with clear expectations.
One of the first activities my students complete in the classroom each morning is free play time. During this time, students are able to grab toys, games, and activities from the cabinets and play while their classmates arrive. I can tell you (from personal, novice teacher experience) that chaos will implode if you do not set clear guidelines for using the toys. What does it look like to get toys from the cabinet? Where are good places to play with these toys? How do we treat the toys as we play? What do we do when we’re finished playing with a specific activity and want to trade it for another? How do we properly put toys away? How do we handle conflict during play time?
These are all questions we need to address in an expectation or procedure. Once your classroom routine is created, walk through your day from start to finish. Jot down all of the steps students will walk through when moving to and from activities. What will students need to grab or complete during specific activities? Then, take those “things” and create either an expectation or routine to lay it all out.
Linked here is a First Day of School Cheat sheet that will walk you step by step through the process of planning the first day of school. This cheat sheet helps you identify which classroom routines and procedures need to be taught. Use this to help you choose what to teach on the first day of school. Once you have identified the classroom routines and procedures you are teaching, follow the 4 step process for teaching the routines that I describe later in this blog post to teach each routine.
Go Slow to go Fast
I get it. You have a ton of curriculum to get in. You have a lot of material you need to cover. But take my word for this, your second semester self will thank you for slowing down in August (or September if you’re lucky enough to start then).
What I mean by going slow to go fast is taking the time to make sure students understand the expectations and routine. Make sure they have enough time to process the procedures and practice before they’re expected to be masters.
Take the time to practice exceptional handwriting. Target those errors. Spend time solidifying those kindergarten standards through assessment and review. Assessments are a crucial starting point in lesson planning, but I have too much to say on that so I’ll save it for another blog post.
Get to Know your Students
Elementary students are full of favorites- their favorite color, their favorite shirt, their favorite marsupial, their favorite rock. Spend time getting to know all of those favorites. During the first couple weeks of school specifically, students may be shy or reserved as they get to know you, their classmates, and get comfortable with the new routine. Knowing and remembering what is important to your students builds trust between them and helps them feel more comfortable in your classroom. The more comfortable they feel, the more willing they will be to participate in class (and it oftentimes minimizes behaviors).
4 Step Process of Teaching a Classroom Routine and Procedure
As I stated above, you have to go slow at the beginning in order for the rest of your year to soar. Following this 4 step process ensures that students truly know the expectations and are able to fully master each and every routine in your classroom.
- Explicitly teach the routine.
Teach every single thing that you expect of your students. Walk them through the classroom routine step-by-step. Be explicit about what this routine should both look like and sound like. You can record these expectations on posters to be able to refer back to later.
- Model the exact behavior you expect.
This modeling should be done by both you and your students. First, you should model exactly what you want the classroom routine or procedure to look and sound like. Then, have a student model this, replicating exactly what you did. Lastly, have a student model the incorrect behavior. (Pro tip: choose a student that is likely to act in the incorrect way. They will be good at this, and it will get it out of their system.)
- Give plenty of time for practice.
After you have done the modeling, allow your students to practice the procedure. For example, if you are working on the classroom procedure of lining up for recess, go through the entire procedure with your whole class multiple times. Praise them for the good things they are doing, and give corrective feedback for behaviors that don’t match your expectations. You will practice this several times while teaching the procedure or routine, and then you will continue to practice it each and every time you need to complete that routine each day.
- Review and debrief.
After you go through the first three steps of this process, it’s important to review and debrief the classroom procedure with your students. Have your students repeat the steps of the procedure. Talk about why you do it. Debrief about what went well while you were practicing, and what you could improve next time your practice. These debrief sessions are critical!
We hope this blog post was helpful and gave you a ton of tips and tricks for teaching classroom routines and procedures in the classroom and that we helped you find success not only in the first week, but for the rest of the school year! For more information on teaching classroom procedures, check out this blog post from Jordan. If you want more classroom tips and tricks, make sure to follow Jordan on Instagram at @teachingfromthefarm and check out her blog at teachingfromthefarm.com.
