Reviewing classroom daily routines should be number one on your to-do list after any long break. Once the holiday season has wrapped up, and as the tinsel settles, it’s time to dive back into the dynamic world of the classroom…. While it can feel hard to head back to the classroom after a break, this is actually a golden opportunity to hit the “reset” button and reestablish those essential classroom expectations – especially if you’ve been struggling with your classroom management before the break.
Read on for the best ways to start things off on the right track by reviewing those classroom daily routines and rules!
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- Why Review Our Classroom Daily Routines?
- Reviewing Classroom Rules and Routines
- Reviewing Daily Classroom Routines
Why Review Our Classroom Daily Routines?
Think of classroom daily routines as the heartbeat of your learning environment. Consistent routines bring stability to our classrooms – they help our students feel grounded, secure, and ready to learn.
A post-break classroom can sometimes feel like the first day all over again – brimming with energy and anticipation. Reinforcing classroom daily routines serves as a rest, reminding students of the expectations and reestablishing structure and stability.
If you’ve been struggling with your classroom management, I also find that this is the perfect time to get things back on track. It’s never too late to create clarity in your classroom expectations, and a return from a break is the perfect opportunity to have a fresh start with a challenging class.
This is actually a golden opportunity to hit the "reset" button and reestablish those essential classroom expectations.
Reviewing Classroom Rules and Routines
Okay, let’s get into the details of the best ways to reestablish our classroom expectations!
I find that these are the most important parts of your daily classroom routines to review after a long break:
- Classroom Rules
- Daily Routines and Procedures
- Classroom Materials
- Lesson or Rug Expectations
I’ve got some activities to share for each of these that will make reviewing those classroom daily routines not only easy, but even dare I say… fun!
Classroom Rules Review
Teachers should be reviewing their classroom rules all the time, but it’s especially important to do it clearly and explicitly after a long break. This is the most important place to start if you are trying to get a challenging class off on the right foot.
It might feel a little bit like you’re doing back to school stuff all over again, and that’s okay! Coming back from a break does require some of the same community building and expectation setting that happens at the beginning of the year. Students benefit from repetition, so it’s totally okay to bring things back from the beginning of the year.
Here are two fun ways to review your classroom rules with your students:
Classroom Promise
Doing a classroom promise is a typical back to school activity, but pulling it out to review is a great strategy when behaviors are getting tough or if you’re coming back from a long break.
Remind the students of each item on the promise, ask them for examples of what those look like in action, and then do some sort of “re-signing” activity – signatures, or decorating handprints, or some other craft are all fun options.
You can grab this Classroom Promise template for free right here!
Classroom Rules Craft
I’m a huge fan of using crafts for reinforcing learning. And this rules craft is about as cute as they come! Each petal is one of your core classroom rules. Students can draw a picture on each petal, and paste it together.
You can get this craft template in my TPT store right here!
Daily Classroom Routines and Procedures
It’s so easy to let our routines slide as the year goes on. Lining up gets noisy, materials get sloppy, and transitions get chaotic. After a break is the perfect time to get back on track with these classroom daily routines!
I think going over each routine of the day in a methodic way is the way to go. Remind students of the expectations for each procedure, have them practice it, and then praise them every time they get it right!
Routines Review Checklist
I made this free routines review checklist for you to use as you go through and practice all of your classroom daily routines. Check the box off once students show mastery. And don’t worry – take as much time as you need to move through the list!
Grab this free editable anchor chart template right here!
Classroom Schedule
Another great review to do is a reminder of your classroom daily schedule. This is especially helpful for younger students, who need visual reminders and who appreciate the structure of a daily routine.
This classroom schedule booklet lets students cut and paste, draw, or write in each part of their daily schedule as a reminder of what to expect in their day to day school life. You can get this template in my TPT store right here.
Rug and Lesson Expectations
The goal of all of this is for students to be ready and able to learn. So reviewing our expectations for our teaching times is a must-do after a long break. Students may have forgotten how to participate appropriately in a lesson, and luckily there are a few fun ways we can help them remember how!
Listening Body
Help students think of ways their bodies can support them while they learn – what should their ears, eyes, hands, brains, and bodies be doing? Now of course, this is going to look different for each student. Encourage students to really think about what would help them most to listen and learn.
This anchor chart helps students think about each part of their body and what they need to help them focus. This anchor chart activity is available in my TPT store right here!
Classroom Materials
Reviewing how classroom materials should be treated can be very helpful after a long break. By this time of the year, it’s pretty typical for our pencils and crayons to look a little worse for wear.
Whether or not you’re restocking with new materials, reviewing with students the proper way to care for their materials is helpful part of reviewing classroom daily routines.
Classroom Materials Anchor Chart
Making an anchor chart with your different classroom materials and asking students to remember how they should be treated is a great way to review classroom materials procedures with your class. Ask students the correct way to handle each item and add it to the anchor chart.
This anchor chart activity is available in my TPT store right here!
Reviewing Classroom Daily Routines
I know it’s hard to come back from a break, but these ideas will definitely help the transition go a whole lot smoother! Don’t be afraid to take some time to do this important review work. Learning can’t happen until your classroom daily routines are running smoothly, so this will be time well spent.
Which review activity are you going to try first? Let me know in the comments! xoxo Laura
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