Routine is important, particularly for younger students, as it gives them a sense of familiarity and comfort in the learning environment. Begin setting up your routine by establishing procedures for certain activities, such as lining up for music class, indoor recess, returning art supplies, taking daily attendance and turning in homework. Teach your procedures to students at the beginning of the school year; for instance, if you wish for students to line up silently before leaving the classroom, show students how you expect them to line up, and then reinforce this behavior every day. Develop cues for alerting students to changing activities or to let them know that they need to pay attention. Cutting off the lights, raising your hand in the air or ringing a bell are all good ways to get students' attention. Soon these procedures, routines and nonverbal cues will become a habit, giving you more time to teach your lessons.
Every classroom needs rules to run smoothly. Rules for young children should be simple, and very positive. Encourage students to help you create your classroom rules by discussing the kinds of behaviors that make it easy to learn, and those behaviors that inhibit learning. Use examples as you talk about the ways in which students can be kind and respectful of each other, the teacher, the school and themselves. Remember to keep rules simple; each rule should comprise only a few words in a simple sentence. Once you and your students have determined which rules you want in your classroom, write them down and post them where all students can see. You may also wish to send a copy of the rules home to parents.
Rather than focusing on misbehavior, focus on the good behavior of your students through a reward system. For example, you might create a board with student names listed. For each day that a student follows the rules, place a star by her name. At the end of the week, students with a certain number of stars get a prize. As an alternative to make the system more anonymous, hand out tokens to students with good behavior, which can be turned in at the end of the week for a reward.
Scholastic suggests that students share the responsibility of the classroom as helpers. Assign students simple tasks such as feeding the class pet, holding the door or running errands to the office. A calendar or list of student names posted on a bulletin board can help the class remember whose turn it is to do which task. Use clothespins or magnetic pictures to mark student names, and remember to rotate tasks so that every student has a chance to perform every job at least once. Scholastic suggests using pictures and clues to help students figure out which job they need to do. Make sure to congratulate students when they complete a task.