Look at your physical environment, and how you set it up. Make sure you do not have “laneways” where children can run from one end of the room to another. Instead, make sure your room is set up into various learning areas.

Also, you need to make sure you are prepared. Make sure your group times are well thought out, and contain variety and are age appropriate. Make sure the activities that are set up in the room also contain variety, and will cater to a variety of developmental levels, until you get to know the children better and what they are individually capable of. Have backup plans… if something is not working, replace it with something else, before the children have the chance to start acting up out of boredom or frustration.

Make sure your routine times are consistent to begin with. That way the children will understand what is expected of them right from the word go. I used to establish a “special helper” system very early on, and that was something that the majority of children loved to be a part of, and really encouraged positive behaviour from, as they all really wanted to have a turn. I would choose a different helper each day, so that the children weren’t waiting forever to have their turn.

There is nothing you can plan for before you meet your kids. You can only know how to best anticipate and prevent behavior problems once you know their behaviors. Then you can use different methods that would work in your group that may not be effective in another…ask this question again once you know specifics about the types of personalities in the group.

If you are a parent then I’d suggest speaking with the teacher about their methods of prevention and discipline before choing your school.

Humans can be just as unpredictable as animals.

Good luck

So, I’d take step by step:-))