We have been talking with the kindergartners about the rules in our school.  Our school uses the Judicious Discipline and the Responsive Classroom approaches to creating a safe and caring learning environment. 

These four statements are the guidelines for Judicious Discipline:

·           Respect the rights and needs of others.

·           Take responsibility for your learning.

·           Treat all property with respect.

·           Act in a safe and healthy way. 

These are the guiding principles of the Responsive Classroom:

·           The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.

·           How children learn is as important as what they learn.

·           The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.

·           There is a specific set of social skills that children need in order to be successful academically and socially.  We use the acronym CARES to identify these skills – Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-Control.

·           Knowing the children we teach individually, culturally, and developmentally is as important as knowing the content we teach.

·           Knowing the parents of the children we teach is important to knowing the children. 

·           How the adults at school work together to accomplish their mission is as important as individual competence.

Using these statements, the kindergartners have helped to decide what they think is needed for us to have a safe, fun place to learn.  The rules that we came up with are listed on the back side of this paper.  All of the students have signed a poster to show their commitment to following these rules.  Please discuss the rules and consequences with your child.  Please keep the top of this sheet as a reminder of our classroom rules and consequences.  Please sign and return the bottom portion to school.  Thank you for your help and support!

Suzette Rowen