Look at your classroom from all angles with this ultimate list of must-have classroom procedures to teach in upper elementary!
Classroom procedures are the bread and butter for creating a safe and comfortable classroom environment. Having solid, defined classroom procedures and spending time reviewing and practicing those procedures can benefit your classroom and your sanity all year long.
Today, we are talking about ALL classroom procedures. You can use this list of must-have classroom procedures to curate your own classroom procedures.
The goal of this list is to remind you of all the different procedures you may want to have in place at the beginning of the year. Even if you don’t exclusively choose to practice them with students, it is always good to have a plan for each of these, as they will come up over the course of the school year. If you need a way to practice classroom procedures with your students, then you may enjoy this Classroom Procedures Game Show.
If you want to get this full list of Classroom Procedures to teach along with a game for practicing them, grab the FREE download below!
General Classroom Procedures
Consider these situations and processes that will most likely occur in your classroom daily. Depending on the age of your students, some of these procedures will be very detailed, with a specific list of tasks to complete or processes to follow. For older students, you may just need to review the expectations for each situation.
- Sharpening Pencils
- Lining Up
- Entering the Classroom
- Leaving the Classroom
- Drills (Fire, Intruder, Weather)
- Arrival Procedures
- Unpacking
- Phone Rings
- Knock at Door
- Student Questions
- Hand Signals (Bathroom, Drink, etc.)
- Class Attention Getters
- Lost Items
- Consequences
- Feeling Sick
- Emergencies
- When students can get out of their seats.
- When students can come to the teacher’s desk.
- When students can visit lockers/backpacks/cubbies.
- Substitute expectations
- Flexible seating
- Snacks
- What should you do if you are absent
During Class
Most of the procedure suggestions on this list have to do with how students interact with the space and each other. These procedures will probably include some situational variances that you’ll need to discuss.
For example, if students are working in groups of 3 they may be allowed to sit anywhere in the room, but when working in groups of 4 or more, they need to be sitting at desks.
- Supplies needed and how to access them
- Morning/Start of class routine
- End of day/class routine
- Expectations during instruction time
- Asking for help/questions
- Transitions
- Working in pairs
- Working in groups
- Working independently
- Working at centers
- Turn & Talk
- Participation
- Silent reading time
- Tests
- Collecting papers
- Clean up after an activity
- Guests
- Noise levels
- When and how to access different areas of the room
Classroom Procedures for Work Time/Homework
This next list is about how students complete and turn in their work. Again, this list is going to look very different depending on the age of the students, as older children will have more independent work time and may have some consequences for late work, whereas younger children will do more work at the same time and may not have to make up work independently at all.
- Name on paper
- Headings for work
- Early finishers
- When/how to turn in classwork
- What to do with unfinished work
- What to do if struggling with an assignment
- Late work
- How to check work before handing it in
- When/how to turn in homework
- How students find out about homework
- What to do if students don’t have their homework.
- Where will you find missed work?
Classroom Procedures for Small Groups
During small group time, teachers are often working with a small group of students while other students work independently or with a few other students. Providing instruction on how students should act during this independent work time can make it much easier for teachers to provide the support their students need in an atmosphere that is conducive to a variety of learners.
- What teachers should see/hear during small group
- What to bring to a small group?
- What to do while the teacher is in a small group?
- What to do if they have a question during small groups
- What to do if they need help during small group.
Expectations for Classroom Jobs
When it is set up well, a classroom can function as a small family unit or a small ecosystem where every student knows their role and how they can contribute. This is often accomplished with a rotating classroom job schedule. Here are a few procedures you may want to consider and discuss with students about classroom jobs.
- When to complete them
- How to choose them
- How often do we change them?
- What happens if students don’t complete jobs?
Procedures for When Students Are Out in the School
The following items on this ultimate list of must-have classroom procedures are all about how your students act and interact with people and teachers outside your classroom.
- Nurse
- Bathroom
- When students can use the bathroom
- Assemblies
- Office
- Drink
- When students can get a drink
- Leaving the room (lessons, small groups, etc.)
- What to do if students have an emergency
- Hallway behavior
- Expectations during specials or in other classrooms
Classroom Library Procedures
Many elementary classrooms have a classroom library. This classroom library may be a selection of the teacher’s own books that students can pick from for a reading time. Having procedures around the classroom library will make it less likely for books to go missing or get ruined.
- Where is the classroom library?
- How to check out books
- How to check in books
- Book care
- Reporting an issue with a book
- Organization of books
- Consequences of misusing or not returning books
Classroom Supply Procedures
Many teachers have a limited amount of supplies, and we recognize that many classroom supplies are purchased by the teacher or donated by families. Students also start the year with their own small stash of supplies that we hope will get them through the entire year. This makes it even more important for the supplies to be cared for throughout the year.
- Classroom materials
- Materials not located in student desks
- Passing out classroom materials
- Borrowing supplies from the teacher
- Taking care of supplies
- Organizing classroom supplies
Class Technology Procedures
Taking good care of classroom technology is important to make sure the tech is always available when needed. Having good procedures in place can really help to make sure that you’re able to get the full life span out of your classroom technology and that these resources continue to be a blessing rather than a burden.
- Technology Usage
- Rules
- Expectations
- When and how to access devices
- What devices are used for
Lunch Procedures for Elementary Students
Lunchtime is many students’ favorite time of the day, but it is also a time that all craziness can happen if students are not reminded constantly of the expectations and procedures.
- When/how to prep for lunch
- Lunch choices
- Lunch money
- Lunchroom procedures
Recess Procedures for Elementary Students
Recesses can be a lot of fun for everyone involved, or it can be a dreaded part of the day for teachers and supervisors, and often times the difference comes down to how well students follow the expectations and procedures for recess time.
This is another category in this ultimate list of must-have classroom procedures that I would both spend some extra time on and be extra diligent about, especially in the first couple of weeks of school, as recess can get out of hand very quickly if students think we’ll be lax on the expectations.
- When is recess
- Indoor recess
- Outdoor recess
- Expectations
- Consequences
- Dressing appropriately
Practicing and Reviewing Classroom Procedures
Now that you’ve considered the many classroom procedures you may want to have in place for your classroom, you can start planning how to introduce and practice the procedures throughout the year.
In this post, we have outlined 7 games you can use to introduce and practice classroom procedures with resources like the Classroom Procedure Game Show, but we also strongly suggest that you have a plan in place for reviewing procedures throughout the year.
In this post, we talk about how you can review classroom procedures around the winter break time as well.
We hope you have enjoyed this ultimate list of must-have classroom procedures to teach in upper elementary and that you have found the list useful as you begin planning for back-to-school time.
As teachers, we recognize that kids thrive when expectations are clear and they know what to expect. Making sure that we have set students up with a good foundation for being successful is what establishing classroom procedures and expectations is all about!
