Classroom Rules in the Special Education Classroom

Sharing is caring!

Why Classroom Rules are Important

First off, I must state that I love rules. I am a rule follower so being in a classroom with rules is like a penguin in the artic. Rules are what give our students in the classroom boundaries. It lets them know what they can and cannot do. As teachers, we need to be sure that we are going over these rules thoroughly to make sure they understand what is expected of them. And the only way you can do that is to teach rules explicitly.

During the first weeks of school, I am like a broken record. I am constantly stating our classroom rules and I am giving lots of examples in different areas in the classroom. I explain how each rule can be interpreted in that part of our classroom whether it is the direct instruction area, work tasks, or sensory room. This allows the students to internalize that information and see examples they can emulate. We have lessons that are dedicated just to our classroom rules and then I use other materials to reinforce the concepts.

Teach some procedures like how to take a break with this freebie!

How to Teach Classroom Rules

A key to helping students understand your rules and expectations is to be clear, concise, and model all the time. Students are not mind readers. We can’t expect that they know how we want them to behave no matter what age they are. Giving visuals also provides great opportunities to connect the words with their meaning!

I made a few products to use with multiple learners but, still was functional and appropriate for teaching rules during those first weeks of school.

In both of these resources you will find:

• Small visuals that can go on a lanyard or table
• Large visuals to use as posters for a bulletin board
• Pages to make books for the class to read or keep in your library
• Worksheets for extra practice during lessons

Additionally, this product has worksheets for extra practice for writers and non-writers! The only difference between these two resources is the type of visuals on them. One uses clip art and the other uses real photographs!

One thing I love to do with these types of materials is make sure they are sturdy! So I always am sure to print on cardstock and laminate them with 5 mil lamination so they last all year!

Materials to Help Reinforce the Classroom Rules

Sometimes just teaching lessons to your students doesn’t give the practice that your students need. I like to model the procedures as much as possible. Role-playing can be effective for teaching scenarios with students and I would do that often with my paraprofessionals. I created some additional materials that you can use to get your independent workstations going in your classroom, BUT you also are reinforcing your lessons on the classroom rules and expectations too!

There are Classroom Rule File Folders:

And then if file folders aren’t your thing, I made task cards too! These fit perfecting into the IRIS photo boxes that you can get at your local craft stores or in my AMAZON STOREFRONT.

There are Classroom Rule Task Cards with 2 levels:

One of my favorite things about this is not only are we teaching rules at this time of the year but, most of us are dying to get more independent work started in the classroom. I love using these materials to start the year because all the students can relate to the materials and we can remind students of what we learned in previous lessons. If you want to learn more about independent workstations and how I set them up you can read about that here.

Now all these materials just work so well together that I created a bundle of the resources for you to grab quickly and prep for the back-to-school season, or anytime during the year you feel that rules need to be re-taught.

If you are interested in the bundle check it out here:

You can also purchase this bundle inside the Special Education Classroom Setup Bundle that I have also created with everything I could think of that a self-contained special education teacher would need to get things running those first few weeks of school. It includes 15 products including schedules, visuals, morning meeting materials, bulletin boards, communication logs, and more!