Encouraging Good Manners

An important part of a day in a pre-school classroom is snack time. Eating gives those kids more energy and gets those grumpy behaviors away. So, it’s important to remember when your starting out snack how you treat one another when your sitting together at a table so we sit down kindly we don’t use our feet to touch another friend we put our hands on our laps and as the teach is getting ready to share our snack I expect manners. So, what I do is I model these manners by saying “Would like a snack today?” And you can be specific, and you say would you milk today or would you like bread today? But usually I just say snack and I expect my students to reciprocate those manners by saying yes please and using my name so that they are practicing please and a formal use of a name. So, I’ll try again I say would you like a snack today and then I wait and then my student will say yes please and then probably Mrs. Gallagher and so then I will happily give them snack but if they yea, or yes or no I wait they don’t receive anything and I say to them could you try that with different words and they try again and maybe it takes two or three rounds but they will eventually realize they need to say yes please or no thank you Mrs. Gallagher. “David, would you like a snack today?” “Yes.” “Hmm, can you use your manners?” “David would you like a snack today?” “Yes please Mrs. Gallagher.” “There we go, yes please Mrs. Gallagher.” “Would you like a snack today?” “Yes please Mrs. Gallagher.” “Oh, excellent manners, would you like a snack today?” “Yes please Mrs. Gallagher.” “Oh, look at those manners.”