23. The 5 Classroom Management Decisions Every Kindergarten Teacher Should Make Before School Starts

Before school starts, there are five classroom management decisions every kindergarten teacher should make.

Too often, we spend our back-to-school time organizing supplies, decorating bulletin boards, and planning lessons while putting off the classroom management planning that actually helps our year run smoothly. But students don't struggle because your classroom isn't decorated. They struggle when expectations aren't clear.

I walk you through the five key pieces of a kindergarten classroom management plan: classroom rules, consequences, procedures and routines, positive behavior supports, and family communication. Whether you're a brand-new kindergarten teacher or looking to improve your classroom management this year, these simple decisions can help you start the school year with clear expectations and a plan you can actually stick with.

You'll also learn why consistency matters more than complicated behavior systems and how to create a classroom management plan before students walk through the door.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Creating simple classroom rules for kindergarten

• Planning classroom consequences ahead of time

• Teaching procedures and routines effectively

• Encouraging positive behavior and building classroom community

• Creating a family communication plan

• Building a kindergarten classroom management plan that works

Links & Resources:

🔗 Free Kindergarten Classroom Management Plan

🔗 Last day to save on Kindergarten Behavior Blueprint

Show Notes: https://kindergartentoolbox.com/5-kindergarten-classroom-management-decisions/

Check out my website: https://teachingexceptionalkinders.com/

Follow me on Instagram @teachingexceptionalkinders

Transcript

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Before you spend hours organizing bins, laminating labels, moving furniture around your classroom, there are five classroom management decisions you need to make first. Because the truth is, students don't struggle because your bulletin board isn't finished or pretty enough. They struggle when classroom expectations aren't clear. In today's episode, I'm walking you through the five classroom management decisions every kindergarten teacher should make before school starts so you can begin the year with clear expectations, consistent consequences, and a plan that actually works. Let's dig in. Welcome to the Kindergarten Toolbox Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Murray, here to help you simplify kindergarten with tools and strategies that actually work with real live five and six year olds. Let's dive into your shortcut to calmer days and more confident writers. Let's get right into it. Decision number one needs to be what will your classroom rules be? And how will you make them? There are lots of schools of thoughts on classroom rules. They can be um like whole brain teaching has like set rules that they think. Some people think you should write the rules with your students. I'm not in that camp. I don't think kindergartners get to make their own rules, especially if they haven't been in a school setting before. That seems sort of silly to me, but to each their own, the first decision you'll have to make, no matter what they are, is what your rules will be. And then you need to make sure that your students know and understand the rules. My classroom rules I kept as pretty simple. It was be safe, be kind, be respectful, do your job. That's it. Simple rules are much easier to remember and much easier to reinforce. Decision number two. What happens when students don't meet those expectations? This is where so many teachers get stuck. Not because they don't have consequences or they don't want consequences, but because they haven't decided what those consequences are ahead of time, and then they're making these logical consequences as the day goes on. And I don't mean to laugh because logical consequences certainly have a place in the classroom. You make a mess, you clean it up, right? That makes sense. But you need to know what's going to happen when rules are broken. When we make consequences up right in the moment, your consistency disappears. Our consequence system was pretty simple. One, you get a warning, two, you lose a privilege, three, you might need to take a break or a timeout of some sort. And four, would be a contact home, maybe with a grow note or a phone call or an email, depending on how serious the behavior was. And of course, if the behavior is physical or threatening in nature, it's escalated right to an office referral. Could yours look differently? Absolutely, but you need to know your plan before you walk into that classroom so that when kids are consistently calling out, okay, first you get a warning because you're not following the rules, you're not being respectful, right? Second, okay, you can't sit here at the carpet anymore for this lesson because you keep calling out. You've lost the privilege of being part of the group. Three, okay, now you're gonna need to take a break, maybe in your calm corner, maybe in another teacher's room, wherever that break looks like for you. And four, if you've been calling out all day like that, then probably we're gonna need to send a grown-out home and let your grown-ups at home know that this was a problem today. But you see how having the plan means I'm prepared to issue those consequences as things arise throughout the day and I'm not just reacting when students are misbehaving. Decision number three, how will you teach your procedures and routines? This is where new teachers often underestimate how much work goes into this part. You don't just need procedures, you need a plan for how you're going to teach them. How will students line up? How will they move to the carpet? How will they get their supplies? How will they keep their supplies? How will they use them? What about the bathroom? What about transitions between activities? How will centers look? If students don't understand your expectations, they can't meet them. And in kindergarten, for me, visuals are a non-negotiable for setting your expectations and your procedures. Because if they can see it, they can understand it, and then they can meet your expectations. Decision number four, how will you encourage positive behavior? When most teachers think about classroom management, they immediately think of the consequences. What happens when kids don't follow directions, or if they keep calling out, when they break a rule? And those are important questions, but another question I'd like you to think about before school starts is what are you going to do when students are meeting your expectations? Because successful classroom management isn't just about responding to challenging behavior. It's also about encouraging behaviors you want to see more often. For example, how will you celebrate positive choices? Will you use a whole class reward system? Will you send home positive notes like a glow note? How will you help students feel like they're an important part of your classroom community? That goes a long way to building those positive relationships. That's the foundation of successful classroom management. In my classroom, one of the goals was always to build a classroom family. I wanted everyone to feel like they belonged and that we celebrated success and corrected misbehavior. In some years, they needed that extra motivation. So we worked for whole class rewards like dance parties or extra recess time, other simple, free celebrations. Nothing complicated, just something that encouraged teamwork and helps students to see that we're all working together toward a common goal. So before school starts, take a few moments to think about how you'll encourage positive behavior in your classroom. Because if all of your planning is focused on consequences, you're missing half of the classroom management equation. And it's a really important half. Decision number five, this is an important one. How will you communicate with families? Because the heart of successful classroom management lies in the relationships that you build with both students and their grown-ups and families at home. It's the one thing that often gets overlooked on classroom management plans because it doesn't feel like a management piece, but it surely is. How will families know what's happening in your classroom? How will you share concerns that you have? How will you celebrate success? The more proactive your classroom communication plan is, the easier those difficult conversations become later. For me, this looked like using glow and grow notes to celebrate successful behavior and to communicate not so wanted behavior, right? We had a daily communication log in our take-home folders. And I used Seesaw, the app, to communicate with families and let them know what was happening day to day and send pictures and notifications and updates. When you're choosing an app, if you have a high English language learner population, then you probably want to make sure that you find an app that you can use that also translates for you so that all parents and all families have access to your communication. It makes life a lot simpler. There's lots of amazing tools out there. Really, it's about finding the communication plan that works best for you. So as long as you can stay consistent with it, so you're keeping families informed. I would caution you to probably not consider a monthly long newsletter that parents likely aren't going to read anyway. It may be a waste of your time. But a simple app like Cecil or Dojo, or there's plenty of others out there, a simple communication log in a take-home folder, and other proactive communication will send the message to families that you care about their student. And that will build you the trust you need to form the positive relationships that strong classroom management is built on and will set you up for the best school year yet. If you're listening and thinking, okay, this makes sense, but I still don't know where to put all of this or how to organize it, I want you to go down to the show notes and grab our free editable classroom management plan just for kindergarten teachers. You'll walk through all five of these decisions, your rules, consequences, procedures, behavior systems, and your communication plan. And instead of staring at a blank page, trying to figure it all out on your own, you can simply fill in the template. You can even see my suggestions, take what you want, change the rest. It's totally up to you. The goal is to create a classroom management plan that fits your classroom. Like I said, head down to the show notes, grab the freebie, and we'll send it straight to your email so you can start the year with an actual plan. And if you're still listening thinking, okay, I can make the plan, but how do I actually teach all of this and implement it in a room full of five and six-year-olds? That's exactly why we created the kindergarten behavior blueprint because having a plan is important, but implementing that plan consistently is usually what actually changes behavior. Inside the kindergarten behavior blueprint, I show you how to teach expectations, use visuals effectively to build independence, build routines that stick, encourage positive behavior, and handle the challenges that come up when you're working with real live five and six-year-olds. Not a hypothetical textbook. So if you want help, not just creating your management plan, but actually putting it into action, today is the last day to grab the kindergarten behavior blueprint at its current sale price. You'll find that link down in the show notes as well. That's it for today. See you next week. Thanks for listening to the Kindergarten Toolbox. I'm Amy Murray and I'm so glad you're here. Be sure to check the show notes for all the links and resources from today's episode. For even more tips, tools, and support, head to teachingexceptionalkinders.com or connect with me on Instagram at Teaching Exceptional Kinders. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and subscribe to the show and take a minute to leave a review. It helps other kindergarten teachers to find us too. Teaching kindergarten is tough, but you're not alone. Here's to calmer days and more competent writers. You've got this.