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Getting Your Class Back On Track After a Break

December 16 By Linda Leave a Comment

Sometimes it seems that just when your classroom starts to run smoothly, it’s time for a break. Other times, the break can’t come soon enough! Refocusing your students after a break doesn’t have to be a struggle. These 6 classroom management tips and teaching ideas will help you get your students back on track in no time.

Classroom management tips for getting students settled back into their routine after a school break.

Review the Rules and Procedures

It’s always important after each and every break to review your classroom rules and daily procedures. It won’t take you nearly the time it did at the beginning, but spending 5-10 minutes daily during your first days back to reinforce the rules and remind students of the procedures is key to making a smooth transition.

Getting students, and your classroom, back on track after a break-Reviewing rules, routines, and procedures is so important. There are some great classroom management tips in this post to help your students make a smooth transition after any school break.

Prioritize your review time with the routines that have the most impact on your classroom. Discuss the most important ones on the first day back and review others as they come up to be used. During lessons and transitions the first week back, ask your students, “Who remembers how we do___?”. Talk about what each rule and routine looks like when students do them correctly. After going over the most important ones first, hold a class discussion and play, “What if?”. Ask your students to tell the class what to do if:

  • You have a question or need help
  • You need a new pencil
  • You need to use the restroom
  • It’s time to line up and walk in the hallway
  • How we do centers
  • It’s time to clean up
  • It’s dismissal time

Click here to see the classroom management PowerPoint I use to teach and review classroom rules, routines, and procedures at the beginning of the year and after every break.

Reinforce Your Routines

Ideally, you want to be able to hit the ground running when returning from a break, and sticking to your schedule is key. Plan in time to review and reinforce your regular routines and then get back to your regular schedule. Students need structure and this gets everybody back on track quickly and makes for a smoother transition back to school.

Dismissal routine anchor chart-Teaching routines and procedures is the key to good classroom management.

Keep your planning routines and classroom management in place too. I try to get the first week back planned and copied before I leave for a break, but that can be easier said than done! Do your best to be productive during your planning times both before and after the break. Start prepping what you know you’ll need a couple of weeks before break starts if you can. You’ll be glad you did when you don’t have to think about it during your time off. That time is yours to rest, recharge and enjoy!

Rethink The Ones That Aren’t Working

Before your first day back, rethink your routines and replace the ones that aren’t working. Come up with a plan to replace those routines with something that may work better. It may take a few tries to find something that works, but the time saved without do-overs makes it worth it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to come up with a Plan B for something that sounded good in my head but just didn’t work in my classroom.

Refresh Your Small Groups

After a school break is the perfect time to reorganize and rethink your reading and math small groups. Most schools schedule their breaks at, or close to, then end of a quarter. More than likely, you assessed all of your students for report cards just before break or your students took quarterly benchmark assessments. Use this new data to rethink your small groups and make any changes you deem necessary.

Getting students, and your classroom, back on track after a break-Refreshing your reading groups. There are some great classroom management tips and FREE writing activities and journal prompts in this post to help your students make a smooth transition after any school break.

Click here to see more of this resource.

Set New Learning Goals

After a break is the perfect time for students to reflect on the last quarter and to set new learning goals. Creating a goal-setting culture in your classroom engages your students and encourages them to take ownership of their learning. Asking students to set goals for themselves, and to think about how they will achieve them, motivates students to do their best.

Getting students back on track after a break-Setting new learning goals is a great way to refocus your students after Fall, Spring, or Winter break. My 2nd graders make this self-portrait goal setting craft and we display them in our classroom to revisit at the end of the year. These would be perfect for 1st and 3rd grade students too.

Make it fun (and create an easy bulletin board) by having students write their goals and how they will accomplish them, in a format you can display in your classroom.

Getting students back on track after a break-Setting new learning goals is a great way to refocus your students after Fall, Spring, or Winter break. My 2nd graders make this self-portrait goal setting craft and we display them in our classroom to revisit at the end of the year. These would be perfect for 1st and 3rd grade students too.

We make these goal setting kids at the start of the year and set new goals in January by writing New Year’s resolutions.

digital virtual New Years activities for the classroom on tablet

Use the 5-Day lesson plan, teaching PowerPoint, and reading passages to get back into your routine. Click here to see this resource.

Getting students back on track after winter break-January is the perfect time to have your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade students write New Year's resolutions and set new learning goals.

After setting goals and writing their resolutions, teach students the history of New Year’s traditions and celebrations around the world.

digital virtual New Years activities for the classroom on tablet

Here’s another fun way to set learning goals with a superhero theme.

Getting students back on track after a break-Setting new learning goals is a great way to refocus your students after Fall, Spring, or Winter break. My 2nd graders make this superhero goal setting craft and we display them in our classroom to revisit at the end of the year. These would be perfect for 1st and 3rd grade students too.

Let Them Tell You All About It!

Most students are very excited to tell you what they did over their break. Rather than trying to fit in every student’s story, take a different approach. Have them write about it! Give students a writing prompt or let them free write. Have your reluctant writers draw. I always ask students to include what they missed most about school, too.

Forget the tired old “What I did on my summer vacation” type prompts and use these fun (and FREE) prompts instead.

FREE Writing activities for students to tell their teacher all about their Fall, Winter, or Spring break. This post has some great classroom management tips for getting students, and your classroom, back on track after a break that are perfect for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students.

Pop in your personal email address and I’ll send them your way! I highly recommend using your personal address as schools often block outside emails with links and attachments. (Be sure to check your spam and all “other” folders if you don’t see the email.)

A little foresight and some thoughtful planning can help you, and your students, make the transition back after a break a smooth one. Try these tips to review your routines and procedures, reinforce the rules, get your students writing, and get everybody back on track for a smooth transition after a break!

Be sure to Pin it for later so you have it when you plan!

Classroom management tips and teaching ideas to help students transition and get settled back in to their routine after a school break. Smart and easy ideas for both students and teachers for reviewing rules and procedures, setting new learning goals and more. Includes FREE writing activity pages and journal prompts for after Fall, Spring, and Winter/Christmas break. Ideal for primary kids in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.

Would you like more classroom management ideas? Click on the pictures to check out these posts and be sure to Pin them for later!

managing data folders 4

Smart computer lab management tips for checkouts, logins, rules and procedures, behavior management, and classroom organization. Plus functional decor ideas to help you manage your computer lab like a boss! A good read for technology teachers and classroom teachers who use a computer lab.

10 Tips for Packing Up Your Classroom- Smart ideas for end of the year classroom organization and packing that will make set up next year so much easier!

5 simple ideas and activities, with several free downloads, to help first, second, and third grade teachers survive the last week before Christmas or winter break. 5 ideas for the last 5 days to keep 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders happy, engaged, and still learning!

10 Tips for Managing Meet the Teacher like a pro!

Happy teaching!

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Filed Under: Classroom Management, Freebies, Popular Posts, Teacher Tips & Tricks Tagged With: classroom ideas, classroom management, school break, teaching tips

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