First Week of School Classroom Expectations Lesson

Plan
By Kelly Gaule
Grade: Kindergarten
When: First three days of school
Purpose: To let students know how my classroom expectations and
how the class will run

Day One: Getting to Know Each Other and the School

1. Welcoming activity/read book about first day of school
Welcome the class
Read Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph
Slate. Discuss how you got ready for school to begin and how
you are feeling nervous and excited. Ask students how they are
feeling about the first day of school.
2. Speaking/ listening expectations/ bathroom
Talk about how to sit on the carpet: crisscross applesauce, ears
listening, eyes watching. Listen to the teacher and your friends
when they are talking. No interrupting or blurting. Raise hands if
you need to say something. Talk about bathroom procedure: if
you have to go to the bathroom cross your fingers in the air to
show the teacher. Discuss and practice how the teacher will get
the attention of students: teacher says give me five and
students stop what they are doing and hold five fingers up in the
air, look at teacher, and stop talking.
3. Get to know me
Show slideshow all about the teacher. Include pictures of family,
friends, and interests. Talk about fun facts that the students may
be interested in.
4. Tell me about yourself
Instruct students to think about themselves and their family or
their favorite things. Have students draw a picture of it. Teacher
will go around and write down what the students are drawing on
their paper. Then come back together and talk about how
different all the students are (boy/girls, families) but how we are
all similar (first day of kindergarten).
5. School Rules

Talk about the overall school rules that students will be

responsible, kind, and safe. Talk about how all students at the
school should act responsible, kind, and safe. Give short
definitions about each and ask students how they can act
responsible, kind, and safe. Give many examples of how to do so
in the classroom and throughout the school.
6. Line expectations
Have students try to stand in a line. Give directions that students
should be facing forward, hands by their sides, mouths closed.
Sing the following song multiple times so that students join in

and can sing along too.

Tell students that when you start singing this song, students
should be able to get in line by the time it is over.
7. School Tour
Tell students how to act in the hallway: stay in line, no talking so
that they do not disrupt other students, follow the student in
front of you.. Since this will be the first year the students are at
school, go on a tour around the school to point out where
everything is.
8. Clip chart
Tell students about how the clip chart is used in every classroom
in the school. Discuss how this allows students to keep track at
how they are doing and that they are recognized when they are
doing well. All students start the day on the ready to learn
green section of the chart. If a child is identified as showing good
classroom behavior their name on a clothes pin is clipped up to
the good day yellow section, then the great day orange
section. If the student is on the orange section and is doing
exceptionally well, they will be clipped up to outstanding red
where the student will receive a sticker at the end of the day. I
also may call or email the parent to let them know how great of a
day the child had. (Messages from the teacher wont always be a
bad thing!) However, if a student is not following our classroom

expectations, they will be given a nonverbal reminder such as

me standing by them to get them on task. If the problem
continues I will give them a verbal reminder, such directly telling
or asking them what to do to get on task. Then if it continues, the
child will be asked to clip down on the chart from wherever they
are. From the ready to learn green section, clipping down
means you go to the blue think about it section where students
are encouraged to think about their behavior and how they can
change it. Clipping below that is the purple teachers choice
section where I get to make a choice for them. For this, I think
about what the child was doing, why the child might be showing
this behavior, and who the child is to determine the best solution
to stop the behavior. For example, I may pull the child aside and
discuss their behavior with them to make sure they are aware of
how to fix the situation. If the child is continuing to display
negative classroom behavior then they will be clipped down to
the pink parent contact section where I will be getting in touch
with the parent to let them know the situation. It is the
classrooms goal that by the end of the day all students are
clipped up to the warm colors (yellow, orange, and red).
9. Talk about why we go to school
Have students brainstorm ideas of why we have to go to school.
Write these ideas on the board (along with a small picture for it).
Discuss that we go to school to become experts and learn all
about the world.
Read Kindergarten, Here I Come By D.J. Steinberg. Talk about
how there are so many things to look forward to in kindergarten.

Day Two: Classroom Expectations and Parts of Our

Classroom
1. Review school rules
Review what responsible, kind, and safe mean and examples.
2. Review clip chart
Review what the clip chart is and how it works.
3. Review speaking listening expectations
Review how to listen to the teacher and others and the give me
five procedure.
4. Brainstorm/discuss our own classroom expectations
together

Talk about how we want to be responsible, kind, and safe, in the

school all the time but we need to know how to act in our
classroom as Ms. Gaules kindergarteners. Have students
brainstorm ways in how we can act in the classroom that we can
be responsible, kind, and safe. Write these on the board and
then take a picture of the board. Reread them to the students
and ask them if they agree on all of them or if they do not. Tell
kids that you will look at all of these tonight and combine them
so that we have a few expectations that include all of the
suggestions.
After school: look at all of the childrens ideas. Combine and
put them into 3-4 different categories of expectations. Make a list of
these and draw a small picture next to them.
5. Introduce problem solving station
Talk about how we all sometimes have problems with other
people. Give examples of these (wanting to share something,
someone is bothering us). Show students the following chart:

Tell students that in this classroom, when you have a problem

with something you need to give a high five and go to this
chart. Explain that it is not an actual high five. Go through each
step.
Stop: If you have a problem, put hands up and say, stop.
Lets go solve this then go to the chart in the classroom.
Explain: nicely tell the other person what is bothering you.
Listen: listen carefully to what the other person is saying
Think: think about ways you could solve the problem
Choose: choose one of the ways

Then talk about how they must follow through with what they
decide and then they can give a high five to each other. Give
students and example situation. Repeat steps and have students
say each step with you.
6. Go through each part of our room: explore and model
expectations
Tell students that they will be doing a lot of learning around the
room and that each part of the room has different things in it and
they are called stations. As a whole group, go through each part
of the room. In each part tell students what it is called and what
it has. Then model how students should act. Model a right way
and a wrong way. Have students decide what is the right way.
Then have students quickly show how they would act in that
area.
When moving from area to area talk about how you will get their
attention by ringing chimes. The chimes mean that the station
time is over and to clean up the station. When it is cleaned up
the students will line up with their group by the station giving the
teacher five. When everyone is ready, the teacher will tell
them to move stations. Make sure you are going around the room
in the same direction they will be going every time they move a
station (clockwise, counter clockwise).
7. What we will learn at school stations
Break students up into groups and have them practice going
through stations. At each station place examples of things that
they will learn in kindergarten.
Areas of the classroom:
Science: nature things, magnets, push/pull objects, etc. Tell
students that they are scientists in this area learning about
the world around them.
Math: numbers, base ten blocks, ten frame, other math
manipulative. Tell students that they are mathematicians
who learn about numbers and math.
Reading: various books on the importance of school,
reading, and books. Tell students that they are readers
looking at books to learn
Writing: crayons, pencils, writing paper. Tell students that
they are authors and writers that write about their lives,
their favorite things, anything!

Social Studies: old artifacts, books on the past, etc. Tell

students that they are historians learning about the past
and themselves.

Practice switching stations and expectations.

Day Three: Review

Review
During the day, review all of what was learned about
expectations through school.

Own Classroom expectations

Show students the chart that you made. Discuss how they all
contributed in how these were made. Go through each one and
give examples. Have students all repeat the expectations. Then
have students draw a picture of them following those
expectations. Put their pictures around the chart in the
classroom. Talk about how they are now responsible for following
the expectations that they made.

Classroom scavenger hunt

Create a scavenger hunt of things around the classroom. On a
piece of paper put pictures of items around the room that
students will have to go to so they can find the item. Make
different versions of this so that different groups are not all in the
same area. Divide students into groups to complete the
scavenger hunt.