Posters for Rules

I have been trying to think about what posters to use to teach my children the five fundamental classroom rules. Today, after reading a suggestion about using posters without the pictures to make them appropriate for all of my students, I perused TeachersPayTeachers, a site I love. I was unsuccessful-but it spawned a thought that I can't shake!

The first thing I am going to do is post my old rules that I downloaded from Chris Biffle, fearless leader of the Whole Brain Teaching curriculum. Click here to learn more. Anyway, I will have great posters to use the first day, but, then....

I am going to chose one child from each class. It will be the first one to arrive on the first day of school. I will have a tape "frame" on my bulletin board that I am going to make with blue painters tape or a cute bulletin board border. The child will stand in front of the frame and create the symbol that represents the rule. Each month, I will redo the posters until everyone has a chance to be the star of the rule. I think this will eliminate any idea that the poster is too babyish or too mature for anyone in the room.

I think this idea is out of this world! What do you think?

New School Year

I am getting excited. School starts in four weeks. I am fixing up my classroom, making my classroom furniture bring out character in my classroom. I am trying to decide which poster to put up...with the rules for the classroom. My class includes students in a six year spread, from 3rd to 8th, so I want to choose posters that will not be to "young" for the older students or too "mature" for the younger students. I may just make my own this year.

This is an important element in my classroom because the first things I will do is use the rules to share expectations with my students. What is the one classroom detail that you are spending the most time on this summer?