By the first full week of school, fourth graders had worked together to create their own set of four class rules.  They began with the expectations for students from the Home-School Contract, and brainstormed what those expectations should look in our classroom.

Their initial brainstorming session generated A LOT of ideas for possible rules:

As a class, we noticed that most of the rules fell into four categories:

– rules about how we treat one another

– rules about how we do our work

– rules about how we treat our school

– safety rules

Students grouped each rule from their brainstorming into these four categories, then re-wrote sets of four rules in small groups.

Finally, the class held a meeting (like a Constitutional Convention) to revise the final rules and vote on them.  Here they are, signed and in place in our classroom!