Tips for Creating a Kindergarten Classroom Management Plan

As teachers, we know how essential it is to have effective classroom management. Each new school year provides an opportunity to decide how behavior management, positive reinforcement, and classroom expectations will look in our classroom for the coming year. However, it’s common to skip the final step, which is to compile all of this information into a kindergarten classroom management plan. In this post, I’m going to share how this simple plan can help your classroom run more smoothly all year long.

The Benefits of a Classroom Management Plan

A classroom management plan is a document that outlines the important elements of how your classroom runs. It also provides an opportunity to share your own values, priorities, and goals for your classroom management. Creating this document can be helpful in many different ways. Here are a few examples:

Accountability

A classroom management plan provides an opportunity to record the behavioral expectations you have for your students. We know that one of the most important parts of establishing expectations is to communicate those expectations to our students. We can’t hold young kindergarteners accountable for rules they don’t know or understand. By keeping these expectations front and center in a classroom management plan, we can make sure that everyone is aware of the classroom rules from day one. 

Communication

A classroom management plan can be a great tool for communicating with parents and administrators. You can easily print and include a classroom management plan as a reference page in your parent communication folder. You can also keep it in a conspicuous place for administration visits.

 We can’t expect parents and administration to support our decisions (particularly consequences) when they don’t have the complete picture. When the classroom management plan is in black and white, it’s easier for everyone to be on the same page. It’s easy to see where your classroom management decisions come from when you have a document that outlines your values and goals for how your classroom will run.

Consistency

A written classroom management plan is very helpful in creating a consistent experience for students. This is a great document to include with sub plans, since the guest teacher can see at-a-glance how the classroom is run. Substitute teachers are more likely to maintain your procedures and expectations when they are clearly outlined. This can go a long way in maintaining consistency for students when you can’t be in the classroom.

What to Include in a Classroom Management Plan

Every teacher’s classroom management plan should be unique to their own situation. However, there are some common things you’ll want to address with your plan to make it as effective as possible.

1. Classroom Rules

The first thing to include in a classroom management plan is a list of the classroom rules. This shouldn’t take up a lot of space in your plan; instead, it should be a quick reminder of the core expectations you have of your students. Are you unsure of what classroom rules you should include in your plan? In a different blog post, I shared tips for creating rules in a kindergarten classroom if you’d like to check it out. It can give you some ideas to use as a starting point.

2. Classroom Consequences

A classroom management plan should also outline the consequences that students will experience when they don’t follow the classroom rules. I like to include these in numerical order, with the most common consequence (verbal or visual warning) as the first option. This is a great visual for parents when they can see that several consequences have been attempted before sending a note or calling home.

3. Classroom Procedures and Routines

A description of your classroom procedures and routines can also be a helpful addition to your classroom management plan. You could include a bulleted list of the specific procedures and routines that are most commonly used in your classroom. As another option, you could explain how you teach and reinforce procedures and routines. Either way, this provides a helpful picture for how your classroom will run throughout the year.

4. Behavior Management and Reinforcement

The next thing you can address in your classroom management plan is how you address behavior and encourage students to make positive choices. This section can include a description of the whole-class reward system that you choose to use with your students. It can also be helpful to describe the individual behavior management strategies that you use if the need arises. You can mention in the classroom management plan that these decisions will be made after communication with families.

5. Communication Plan

Speaking of communication with families, that is the fifth and final thing that I recommend including in your kindergarten classroom management plan. It is helpful to outline the different ways that you communicate with parents throughout the year. This can go a long way in helping parents feel like they are partnering with you in their child’s education. Plus, parents will be able to watch for these communication tools in the take-home folder. 

Editable Template for Your Classroom Management Plan

Are you ready to put together your own kindergarten classroom management plan? I can save you a lot of time! I’ve put together a free template that you can use as a starting point for your own classroom management plan. You can easily edit the example text to fit the unique plans you have for your classroom. 

Since every classroom is different, this editable template should not be used word-for-word. The sample text used in the template is purely to give you an idea of what could go in that section. There are several page options included with this freebie so you can find one that works best for your needs. Grab yours free when you join our email list below!

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Save These Kindergarten Classroom Management Tips

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite classroom management board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find this post when you’re ready to put together your own classroom management plan.