"No, David!"

Who doesn't love the book "No, David!" by David Shannon? I love to read this book at the beginning of the year to teach rules. I read the book and then we list and talk  about some of the "sad choices" David made. Then, we talk about and write down what he could have done to make a better choice. I move the conversation the following day into classroom community. We go back to the chart where students wrote sad and smart choices and talk about what we want our classroom to look like. I consolidate the list into three. I do this by consolidating answers. For example: most kids say don't hit, don't punch, don't yell out etc. I talk to students about how these are all things we don't do because it isn't being respectful or nice to others, so I write "Be Respectful".

 I used to have the following rules: Be safe, Be Neat, Be Kind. We are now entering our second year with PBS (Positive Behavior Supports) and our school expectations are: Green Tree Gators are safe, respectful, and responsible learners. We repeat this everyday during morning announcements. I love it because it is easy to say: "Are you being responsible when you don't listen?" So, I now use this as my classroom rules/expectations.

The following PDF is a few "No, David!" activities. The first one is a Predictable Chart where each student writes his or her name on the line. This is a great way to get to know names and recognize what the name looks like. I put pictures of the students next to his or her name. As a class, we read this together and I let each student use a pointer to read their own name.

The second page is another predictable chart where the student writes their name in the first blank and then tells a sad choice they have made. For example: Shelley has written on a book. Since I teach kindergarten, I usually have each student write their own name and I fill in their sad choice. This would make a great class book too!

The third page is a making connections anchor chart. I am planning to teach text-to-self connections at the beginning of the year. "No, David!" is a perfect book to get students to make those connections. As sweet as these little 5 year olds are, they have ALL made a sad choice and it should be easy for them to come up with something they have done :)

The fourth page is a random page. I just finished a class on Young Readers and I used my "No, David!" activity and a name activity so I put it on one PDF. Instead of taking this random page off, I thought someone might be able to use it! Begin by writing each student's name on a sentence strip. Then, cut each letter apart and put them into a ziploc bag labeled with that student's name. Hand out a paper and the ziploc bags. Each students glues their name on the name line and then counts the number of letters in his or her name. I make a class book out of this and we make a graph with the number of letters in our name.



What books do you use to teach classroom rules and procedures?

                               -Shelley