When you and your students return to school from a break, it’s a great time to review and possibly change some routines.
Here are 20 suggestions!
1 – Implement (or re-teach) hand signals as a nonverbal way to communicate with you.
Here is the link to a free version of signs on Teachers Pay Teachers.
2 – Change up your attention signals. This blog post explains some ways to do that. Some teachers like to use a signal, such as a chime or a wireless doorbell.
3 – Tighten up your morning arrival routine. Review what you expect your students to do when they enter your classroom. Make a poster if a visual aid would be helpful. Consider what morning work you can provide for your students to complete. (Completing any unfinished work and independent reading are always good options.)
4 – Tighten up your afternoon dismissal routine. Review what you expect your students to do at the end of the day. Make a poster if that would be helpful. Practice this routine earlier in the day if it’s a little messy.
5 – Change how your students line up, just to make things interesting!
6 – Use timers (especially if you make them visual) to help kids manage their time or to know how much time remains before the next transition. These are a good option if your students need small, individual timers.
Classroom Screen is a great way to post directions and include a timer for students to see.
7 – Use turn-in trays for student work. Some teachers like to use just one tray, and others prefer to have separate trays for different subjects (or for different classes if you teach the same subject).
8 – If students are having trouble remembering to write their names on their papers, have them use a highlighter to highlight their names before turning in work.
9 – Greet students at the door. It is so simple but so effective in giving you great information about your students at the start of the day.
10 – Consider using attendance questions as part of your morning routine.
11 – Create a chart with “anchor activities,” tasks that students may do when their work is done. Or create a “must-do/may-do” list for each subject and post it on the board or whiteboard.
12 – Once a month, have students clean their table areas (or desks), binders or folders, and cubbies. Then have them change seats! (That’s their “reward.”)
13 – If pencils are a problem, consider a policy like this one. You can also just buy or request bulk pencil donations from anywhere you can get them and keep a stash on hand.
14 – Classroom jobs can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make them. Some teachers have students apply for jobs. Some teachers give every student a job, but rotate who does what jobs daily. Do whatever works for you.
Here is the easiest classroom jobs system: rotate through the names on your class list and choose two students daily to be the “teacher helpers.” These students get to be the line leaders, pass out or collect papers and supplies, turn lights on or off, and generally do whatever you need them to do during the day.
Train the first two kids on the first or second day of school. Then, when you rotate to the following two names, have the first pair “train” the second pair of students. And so on. No more coming up with a job for every student.
What if a student is absent? You could either go on to the next name on your list or draw a random name. Do you let students make up their turn when they return from being absent? That is up to you, but I generally don’t do that. We rotate so frequently that their turn comes up again pretty quickly.
15 – Use daily exit tickets and change them up so nothing ever becomes too routine. Here are some great examples from We Are Teachers.
16 – Consider making a classroom transformation for an upcoming unit! Here are some examples.
17 – I mentioned hand signals before as an example of nonverbal reminders. Another great nonverbal reminder is to have a visual that reminds your students what they are working toward. For example, if students earn tickets or tokens toward a class reward, simply show them (or hold up) the ticket or token. That simple visual is often all that is needed to remind your students of their goals.
18 – Have students create or change bulletin boards or displays. Displaying student work is always a good idea, making the classroom more student-friendly. Allow your students to make posters or charts about books you’ve read or are reading as a class. They can also make teaching posters for math, science, or social studies topics.
19 – Don’t grade everything! If you’re grading everything your students are doing, either they are not practicing enough, or you are working yourself to death. I created a guide for how to deal with all the papers and assessments.
20 – Consider refreshing your own before-school and after-school routines. Here’s my quick guide for doing that.
What routines do you like to revisit or simplify after school breaks? Let me know!
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