How did we establish our rules?

As a class, we first brainstormed a giant list of rules that we all felt were important in helping everyone in our classroom feel safe, welcome and able to learn. As we brainstormed these rules, Mrs. Davis sorted the rules into three random categories. Once all the rules were sorted, students had to put on their detective thinking caps on to see what their student-generated rules all had in common within each category. Category 1 were all rules about taking care of ourselves. (i.e. following directions, hands to yourself, calm and safe body, walking feet, raising your hand, waiting your turn, etc). Category 2 were rules about taking care of others. (i.e. speaking kindly, treating others the way we want to be treated, sharing, working as a team, etc). Category 3 were rules all about taking care of their classroom. (i.e. be gentle with books, put things back where you found them, keep your desk tidy, push in your chairs, use materials the way they were intended, etc). This was a fun way to put all our amazing thinking together to ultimately generate 3 major and important rules to help us all feel safe, welcome and be able to learn each day we come to room 227. :)