Game Time: Help Students Learn Routines through Play
Students enjoy learning when it is fun and feels like a game! Here’s a quick way to help your students learn routines in your classroom.
Why is this Important?
Children in the early grades are just beginning to learn how to follow instructions. They need lots of opportunities to understand what is expected. Students need to know what behaviours or practices should look like, sound like, etc.
How Can Students Learn Routines through Play?
Let’s say you are teaching a new routine such as, “How to Sharpen Your Pencil”. I like to teach the word, procedure early in the school year. This is helpful because I want my class to realize that we are all working on following little procedures that can help our classroom run smoothly. I also tell them that we will first pretend how to do the routine so that we can understand what to do.
Tips on How To Teach a New Classroom Routine
- Introduce the routine (e.g., “We are going to learn how to sharpen a pencil safely in our classroom.”)
2. Explain why it’s important. Share why it is important to know this routine and follow it (e.g., for writing; stay safe)
3. Share the procedure for the routine in short steps. I project these short steps on a screen. I read them aloud.
4. Teacher acts it out. I model each step.
5. Invite 2 – 3 students to act it out in front of the whole class. The class quietly observes their peers.
6. Class celebrates their peers’ actions. Invite the observing peers to talk about what they saw. I ask them to tell the “actors” what they did well. Some use the steps that are projected on the screen as a reference when sharing what was done well (e.g., “I really liked how you walked safely with your pencil to the sharpener.”).
6. Each student gets the chance to act it out, too! Dedicate time to give all students a chance to act it out. It doesn’t have to be in front of the whole class. Depending on the routine, I will let all students act it out independently in their work space, or better yet, in small groups.
7. Act it out as a class (if applicable). If the routine is to be followed by the entire class (e.g., lining up for lunch), then I will also have the students act it out several times until we are proud of what we can do together.
Have You Tried This Before?
My students have the best time learning some routines by acting out what it shouldn’t look like or sound like in our classroom! Students quickly volunteer to show what a routine may look like if done incorrectly. There are usually many people who wish to act this out in front of the class! We are usually laughing by the end of it and it’s great!
It gives the students some fun moments. It also gives me the opportunity to open meaningful discussion about what the routine should look like or why it may not be best to follow the procedure in such a way.
My class has the best time learning some routines by acting out what it shouldn’t look like or sound like in our classroom!
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Questions about Routines
What routines do you teach your class during the first week of school?
Which routines are sometimes not followed well? How are changes made? How do you help your students if this happens?
What happens when students know and follow classroom routines? How does your classroom sound? How do your students grow in their learning?
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