Creating Our Class Promise

The first week of school is critical for setting the tone for the rest of the year. It can be hard to create a classroom community in the midst of setting expectations, reviewing school rules, and establishing procedures, but it's the most important thing you can do. With a well established classroom community, everyone becomes invested in the success of everyone else.  Thankfully, there is a way to combine many of your first week priorities into one meaningful activity - creating a class promise. 

Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links which means that I earn a small amount when you make purchases (at no extra cost to you). However, my promise to you is that I am only sharing my honest opinions and I will never promote something I do not believe in.

I first found out about class promises when I read Debbie Miller's Reading With Meaning. I had been creating rules with my class for a few years, but I loved the idea of making a promise to each other instead. I've been creating class promises during the first week of school ever since. They are posted in the classroom and referred to frequently throughout the school year. Students aren't just accountable to me for following school rules, they are accountable to each other as well. 

It's an easy and fun process to create the promise. Students are very engaged as they get to decide what will be included.


I start by reading my poem, A Kind and Caring Classroom.  We talk about what a kind and caring classroom would look like. We discuss the meaning of the poem and why showing kindness and caring for one another would help our class to have a good year. We share examples of kindness and talk about how we feel when others treat us with kindness. We also talk about how we feel when others are unkind. 

If you don't have the poem (available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store), you can simply start a discussion about what kind of classroom students want to be in this year. 


We make anchor charts to show what we would do or say if we were showing kindness and caring. I use a template from my school's positive discipline training to organize the student responses. We make a chart for showing kindness, another one for showing respect, and a third for helping each other learn.

During that first week, I also read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.  We make another anchor chart to compare bucket filling and bucket dipping. I'm always amazed by how insightful the students are in these discussions.  They show remarkable empathy and understanding.  

Finally, we are ready to write.  I use a shared writing model for composing the promise. We start out by thinking about what kind of classroom we want to be in. That first sentence is very important, as it informs the rest of the promise. In other words: If this is what we want, how are we going to make it happen? With my guidance, the students decide what we need to include and help me to compose the sentences. It takes us a couple of days to finish, but finally, we have a finished promise.

There is one more step to make it official.  Everyone in the class, including me, needs to sign the promise. To make it even more personal and meaningful, I have the students create a representation of themselves to post beside the promise. You can see one of mine on the right. After all of the students finish their people and sign the promise, we are finished.

Here's our Class Promise for the 2014-2015 school year.

This is our class promise from the 2016-2017 school year.

Sometimes the kids will surprise you with their creativity! I love the cowboy version of himself that one of my kids created.

What do you do during the first week of school to establish a positive classroom climate?  Please share your ideas and strategies in the comments below.

Until next time,