Easy Tips for Top Notch Hallway Behavior

Hallway behavior might seem like a small part of the school day, but it plays a crucial role in maintaining a safe, orderly, and respectful environment. How students act in the hallways can significantly impact the overall school atmosphere, learning experiences, and even student safety. As educators, it’s our responsibility to teach and reinforce positive hallway behavior to ensure smooth transitions and a positive school culture. This blog post will provide you with practical tips and strategies to help you manage and maintain good hallway behavior throughout the school year. From the beginning of the year to daily routines, we’ll cover everything you need to know to keep those hallways quiet, orderly, and respectful.

Whether you are in your first years of teaching and just a beginning elementary teacher, or a seasoned educator- there are going to be some ideas in here for both of you!

Beginning of the Year: Setting the Foundation for Hallway Behavior

Explicitly Teach

At the beginning of the school year, it’s crucial to establish clear expectations for hallway behavior to create a positive and orderly school environment. Begin by explicitly teaching the importance of appropriate hallway behavior and its impact it can have on students in other classrooms. For example, explaining that when you’re in the school hallways, other students can hear you and it can be distracting. This may seem obvious but I promise you- not every kid even realizes this!

You will need to explicitly teach what you want the students to do such as walking quietly, staying to the right, and respecting personal space. This is important because students may forget or have had a teacher last year who had different expectations.  You need to teach if you have specific expectations for the line leader such as holding the door.

Use visual aids and role-playing activities to demonstrate these behaviors is a great way to make sure students are remembering these expectations. Additionally, create and display a clear set of hallway behavior rules in both classrooms and hallways to serve as constant reminders for students. It can be easy to forget to teach hallway procedures or assume students already know the rules, but don’t skip this important first step!

Practice!

Next, you need to allow students to practice these behaviors. Schedule regular practice sessions during the first week of the school year, and take students on “hallway tours” to practice walking quietly and following the established rules like walking in a straight line. This can also be used as a way to show students where different areas are in the school in case there are new students in your classroom. 

For the first weeks of school, hallway behavior practice can be incorporated into daily routines, such as transitioning between classes or heading to lunch, to ensure students become accustomed to following the expectations consistently. But the first time your students practice walking in the hall shouldn’t be to a target location- allow them to just practice!

Reinforce

Reinforcing positive hallway behavior is key to keeping these standards throughout the year. Give immediate, specific praise when students do well in the hallway. Set up a reward system, like tokens or stickers, to celebrate consistent positive behavior. 

Use positive reinforcement, like verbal praise or small incentives, to help students who might need extra support. This sounds simple, but we are so often getting into the habit of correcting students instead of praising them when they do what we expect. I challenge you to praise at least two kids every time you walk in the hallway at the beginning of the year, no matter how far you go.

You can even hold regular class meetings to review progress, talk about any challenges, and celebrate successes, building a sense of community and accountability among students. This is a positive way to make sure your hallway behaviors stay top notch. At the end of the week you can reflect with your class on how it went for the week.

By teaching, practicing, and reinforcing hallway behavior from the get-go, you can create a respectful and orderly school environment that benefits everyone.

During the Year: Maintaining Positive Hallway Behavior

Before leaving the Classroom

Keeping positive hallway behavior going throughout the year is essential. One way to do this is by helping students refocus before they leave the classroom. Establish a routine where you use a signal or cue to grab their attention and remind them of hallway expectations. This may look like you using your attention getter signal, saying the target behavior to focus (maybe just to stay in line) and then get ready to leave.

You could even try a quick mindfulness activity or some deep breathing exercises to help everyone calm down and get ready for the transition. This can get students focused and ready to move to the next class. This can prevent you having to stop in the middle of the hallway to regroup. You can do this right before you walk out the classroom door or even before you line the students up.

How Kids Line Up

How kids line up can make a big difference in keeping the hallway orderly. Teach and practice lineup procedures regularly, and consider assigning specific spots in line to avoid any disputes. Using visual markers or tape on the floor can help students know exactly where to stand, reinforcing the importance of quiet and orderly lines.

Orderly procedures are essential, but making students line up in a specific order can be more work than it is worth. If it works for you- great! But I find managing something that specific is time consuming and just not a battle to fight.

Reviewing Expectations

It’s important to regularly review hallway behavior expectations to keep them fresh in students’ minds. Use posters, charts, or other visual reminders to make sure these hallway rules are always visible. You can incorporate quick reviews into daily routines, like during morning meetings or before transitions, to keep everyone on track with good hallway behavior.

If your students struggled in the last hallway walk, the next time you leave be sure to address that specifically. Remember to tell students what TO do instead of what not to do. Example, instead of saying “don’t touch the walls,” say “keep your hands by your side.” This gives students something to do. If you just said not to touch the walls- that means they can touch others or any items in the hallway.

Social Skills Story

Social skills stories can be a fun and effective way to illustrate what good hallway behavior looks like. Create or use an existing social story that highlights the expected behaviors, and take time to read and discuss it with your students. Refer back to the story throughout the year when addressing hallway behavior, and encourage students to create their own stories or drawings about positive hallway behavior.

By helping students refocus before entering the hallway, ensuring orderly lineup procedures, regularly reviewing expectations, and using social skills stories, you can maintain a positive and respectful hallway environment all year long.

While You Are Walking: Tips for Maintaining Positive Hallway Behavior

Mystery Walker

One fun and effective strategy is to use a “mystery walker” or “secret walker” each time you walk in the hallway. Choose a student to be the mystery walker, but keep their identity a secret until the end of the walk. If they demonstrate positive hallway behavior, when you get to your location- announce who it was and give them specific praise, or some type of reward (even a small piece of candy could be exciting to earn!) This keeps all students motivated to follow the rules, as anyone could be the mystery walker. Rotate the role regularly so every student gets a chance to participate.

Another tip for this is to have a mystery walker for the entire day and announce it at the end of the day!

Behavior-Specific Praise

Behavior-specific praise is a powerful tool. Provide immediate and specific praise for positive behaviors, such as walking quietly, staying in line, or keeping hands to themselves. Use a variety of praise statements to keep it meaningful and engaging, and share examples of good behavior with the class. Highlighting these actions helps reinforce what you want to see more of, and students love hearing exactly what they did well.

You can also tie these into a student’s individual behavior plan, like if they are using a token economy or a behavior chart or contract.

This is so much better than just good job. When you highlight the specific behavior, you are more likely going to see more of it. For example, if your principal walks by you and says “good job today”- that feels good. What feels even better? When they say, “good job keeping your lesson moving today, it was really engaging.” This feels EVEN BETTER. And, you are much more likely to continue doing that now! This works for all levels, but if you are a middle school teacher- this one is going to be the best intervention for you.

Give Them Something to Do

Keeping students engaged while walking can make a big difference. One idea is to have them place their hands on the wall or walk like penguins, keeping their hands at their sides. You can change it up occasionally with different fun actions, like pretending to be secret agents. This is much more appropriate for the younger grades. What is great about this one is it is a no prep activity!

Another option is the good behavior game, where students earn points for good behavior, working towards a collective reward. Immediate feedback on points earned can reinforce their positive actions. This can be played with boys vs girls, teacher vs students, or line vs line (if you have two lines). This can help those slow walkers keep up with their class because they are working together as a team!  There can be a lot that goes into this, so to be sure you set this up the right way, read this blog post here.

Additionally, you can create a “search & find” activity with items or pictures placed along the hallway for students to spot while maintaining good behavior. Vary the items to keep the activity fresh and interesting. This will take a little bit of prep, but can be exciting for students. You can also use sight words or even simple math problems! Just remember to review the proper hallway behavior you want students to display when they do find the items.

It can be fun to also give jobs like the front of the line holds the door and the end of the line is the caboose and makes sure no one is falling behind. Giving jobs requires students to become more engaged and therefore not engaged in problem behavior.

Model Appropriate Behavior

As an teacher, it’s important to model the hallway behavior you expect from your students. But you and I both know that this is easier said than done, because sometimes it is the only time we have to talk to another adult. However, as much as possible demonstrate the expected behaviors yourself and discuss whether it is appropriate for teachers to talk but not students. Walk alongside your students to provide guidance and support, using non-verbal cues to redirect them as needed. Showing students how to behave through your actions can be very effective in helping them understand and meet expectations.

Use Visual Cues

If you are trying to model appropriate behavior, it can become challenging to remind students of the expectations without talking…. or is it? You can throw some visuals on your lanyard and easily show them to the students to either provide positive praise or remind them of the expectations like a quiet sign or hands to self.

Want some of your own? Grab them here.  

Hall Stars

Want to do something fun? Create a place in your room to highlight your ‘hall star’ or the best walker for the day or week in your class. This gives some special recognition without having more more additional work on your part! You can make this a big deal for students by even involving their parents and letting them know they earned it!

Resources 

Need some resources to help with hallway behavior? Take a look at the following to support you classroom!

Token boards: These are free resources that you can use for individual students. You can set specific goals for students such as staying quiet in the hall and specifically have something they are working towards!

Visual Cues: These lanyard visuals are so easy to have on you at all times. It will even give you class time back because you won’t be wasting it in the hallway reminding students the rules and expectations!

Classroom wide reward system: Use this as a way to reinforce the entire class! This can help build classroom community and is much easier to reinforce the entire class than a handful of individual students. There are options of full color as well as black and white images to choose from.

New teachers or seasoned teachers can both benefit from these resources and tips. Sometimes just shaking up what you’re doing can be the change you need! If you use any of these good ideas, send me a message on Instagram at @mrs_moes_modifications and let me know!

Maintaining positive hallway behavior is essential for creating a safe, orderly, and respectful school environment. It is so important because it is a part of the school culture. Consistency in teaching, practicing, and reinforcing these behaviors is key to helping students internalize and uphold the expectations throughout the year. By using strategies like the mystery walker, behavior-specific praise, engaging activities, and modeling appropriate behavior, educators can ensure smooth transitions and a positive school culture. Remember, patience and persistence are crucial—celebrate small successes along the way and keep reinforcing those good habits. With these strategies, you can make hallway behavior a seamless and positive part of your school’s daily routine.