RULES SESSION

The rulemaking session will be held once a year, preferably at the beginning of the course (January),
so that these rules will be kept active throughout the year until December.

Also of the rulemaking session created, there will be held review sessions every three months, since
there are new boys and girls who are incorporated, and they also have to feel their own rules. This is
why this document is divided into two parts:

· Creation of rules

· Rules Review

This will apply to both the Circus and Socio-Educational as Music Program, and both the morning
and the afternoon shift.

General objective

· Establish a better climate in the group.

Specific objectives

· Establish mandatory rules for all: children, instructors and volunteers.

· Involve the children in the rules and feel them as theirs.

· Increase the likelihood that rule will be met.

· Make the girls and boys think about the problems and solutions that occur in the group.

· Increase the responsibility of children in relation to rules.

Person in charge

The person responsible for streamlining the rules sessions (both the Standard Setting and the Rules
Review) will preferably be the instructor who usually works with the group. It is recommended that
this person has a relationship of trust with the group, so that it opens up more easily and participates
more actively. You must know all the members of the group and know their names. The person
responsible will always be the same person.

It is important that this person prepares the session in advance, making his own list of:

· Problems in the group and in the classes.

· Possible future problems that could be exist.

· Rules that could solve such problems: These rules have to be formulated in a positive way. For
example, instead of "not pushing peers" would be written "treat respectfully and politely to
classmates." A maximum of 7 or 8 rules must be formulated.

· Rewards if the rules are respected: these rewards have to be mainly at the group level, although there
may be some at the individual level, but less.
-The rewards have to be something valued by the boys and girls. Preferably they will not be material
rewards, with some exceptions. That is, it is better that the reward is "to do an activity that they ask
for", or "to be able to choose what flavor will be the refreshment next week". In exceptional cases
they can be offered a material reward, such as "get ice cream".

- How often are rewards given? There can be no rewards every day that a norm is fulfilled, since they
would cease to have value. So the rewards have to be weekly (if the norm is difficult to meet) or
monthly (if the rule is easy to meet), or even quarterly.

-Reward Level: Rewards that come briefly (weekly) cannot be of a very high or very important level,
but will be small rewards. Those are given more time, for example every three months, had to be
rewards of higher level, more important.

-If a rule that was difficult to respect is becoming easier to meet for boys and girls, the reward has to
be spaced more in time, for example going from being weekly to every two weeks.

 Punishments if the rules are not respected: punishments should be mainly group level, but be
careful that they are not excessive or too light. The group must be aware that it is their
responsibility to help their peers meet the standards. Punishments cannot eliminate something
that they have won for a reward by complying with a rule.

Space and time

Rules session will be realized in a place without distractions: without noises, with a pleasant
temperature and the sufficient illumination. The comfort of all and all participants, both boys and
girls, as well as instructors and volunteers, must be sought.

Rules session (both Rules Setting and Rules Review) will begin when all the children have arrived
before any other activity begins. No material that does not correspond to those indicated in the
materials section of this document will be removed.
 RULES CREATION

Materials

Chairs, benches or somewhere to sit comfortably

Tables to work, create posters and banners.

Pencils, pens, markers

Sheets of paper

Blank poster, large sheet of paper, large card stock, or several sheets of paper joined together.

The person responsible to invigorate the session must have a notebook and a pen or pencil to take
notes.

Dynamic

At the beginning of the session the group will be informed that the objective is solve the problems
which exist or could exist in the future, to be everyone more comfortable and have security
conditions. The used language will be adapted according to the age and profile of the boys and girls in
the group.

Afterwards, the "rules" of the session will be informed:

 You can say wherever you want, always with respect.

 The opinions of the partners will be respected, letting them finish talking and accepting what they
say.
 Everyone should participate in the session so that all the ideas and opinions are collected.

For the following, the ideal is that some volunteers of the group take notes. If they are very small, or
they don’t know how to write well, the instructor will take the notes. Even if there is a child taking
notes, also the instructor must take their own notes of what is said. Everything what is said next will
be done jointly with the group of children, giving them greater roles. They should be encouraged to
participate in a positive way, without pointing fingers or being forced. It´s recommended following
the guidelines already indicated in the document of the Participatory Assembly on Fridays.

The steps to follow will be the next:

1. Talk about the problems of the group: You have to ask to the groups which are the problems that
currently exist in the group and in the classes. The boys and girls have to say the problems. Once they
´ve participated and if there is still some problem, the volunteers or the instructor can intervene.

2. Talk about the possible future problems: For example, if a new child comes to the group and
doesn’t follow the rules. The group may not think of this kind of problems. Nothing happens; you
have to focus more on the problems that currently exist.

3. Make categories with the found problems: You have to match problems within the same category.
For example, pushing and spitting might be included in the category "being rude and disrespectful
with a partner." You have to make sure that there aren’t too many categories.

4. Talk about rules: For each category of problems must be design a rule. As it has already been said,
the rules must be formulated in a positive way, and the text must not be too long. Better if there is a
short, simple and direct phrase. It is recommended that the rules aren’t less than 4 and no more
than 8, so that they are easy to remember.

5. Talk about the punishments: In case a rule is not obeyed, what will be the punishment? Each rule
will have associated a punishment. The group must decide an group and/or individual punishment.
In this case it is very likely that children say very hard and excessive punishments. So, it is the
instructor's job to lower the level of punishment to make it balanced.

6. Talk about the rewards: In case a rule is obeyed during a certain period of time (one week, two
weeks, one month, two months, three months), what will be the reward? As it said before the
rewards must have some characteristics.

7. Create the posters: Three posters will be created, which the girls and boys have to do with the
help and support of the instructor and the volunteers:
a. Rules poster: The rules will be written with a number, letter or drawing in front that identifies
them.
b. Rewards poster: The same as before but with the rewards for each rule and the time during which
you have to respect the rules to get them.
c. Punishment poster: The same as the first, but with punishments.

8. Sign the rules: Everyone in the group, including instructors and volunteers, must sign the rules,
committing themselves to complying with them. In case that someone does not know how to write,
you can "sign" leaving the fingerprint of your hand or finger with paint (the instructor will write your
name below).

9. Hang the posters on the wall: Finally, they have to be hung on the wall; the three posters must be in
a visible place, being the first poster of the left, the rules, followed by the rewards, then the
punishments and finally, the commitment signatures.
 RULES REVIEW

Materials

Chairs, benches or somewhere to sit comfortably

Tables to work, create posters and banners.

Pencils, pens, markers

Sheets of paper to take notes

Posters of rules, rewards, and punishments existing

Notes in which you wrote the problems and categories of problems in the rulemaking session

The person responsible for streamline the session has to have a notebook and pen or pencil to take
notes.

Dynamic
At the beginning of the session, the group will be informed that the objective of the same is
reviewing the rules and adapt them to the changes produced in the group, to still be all comfortable
and have safely conditions. The language used should be adapted according to the age and profile of
the boys and girls in the group.

Afterwards, the "rules" of the session will be informed, namely:

 You can say whatever you want, always with respect.

 The opinions of the partners will be respected, letting them finish talking and accepting what
they say.
 Everyone should participate in the session so that all the ideas and opinions are collected.

For the following, the ideal is that some volunteers of the group of boys and girls take notes. If they
are very small, or they don`t know how to write well, the instructor will take the notes. Even if there is
a child taking notes, also the instructor must take their own notes of what is said. All of the following
will be done jointly with the group of children, giving them a greater role. They should be encouraged
to participate in a positive way, without pointing fingers or being forced. It is recommended to follow
the guidelines already indicated in the document of the Participatory Assembly on Fridays.

The next steps will be as follows:

1. Talk about the problems that now there are in the group : you have to ask to the group
the problems that had three months ago.
a. Is there a problem that said then now no longer exists?
b. Has there been a new problem that did not exist before?
2. Analyze the rules: now is the time to analyze the rules and ask yourself these two
questions:
a. Is there any rule that is no longer useful, because that problem no longer
exists?
 b. Is there any new rule that we need to add?
3. Change the rules: if the answer to any of the previous questions is "yes", make the
necessary changes in the rules, eliminating some or adding new ones. To add new
rules will follow the guidelines and steps explained in the section "Creating Rules",
steps 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
4. Make changes in the posters: if any rules has been removed or added, the appropriate
changes must be made to the posters. No new posters will be made, but the existing
ones will be rectified.
a. If you have to remove a rule you can cover it with a soft paper cut and write
on, the new rules (or leave it blank if there are no new rules to add).
b. If a new rule has to be added it can be written on a sheet of white paper and
added under the poster.
5. Re-signing the rules: all people in the group, including instructors and volunteers,
have to re-sign the rules, removing the previous signature sheet and putting a new
one.
6. Put the posters and signatures back in the same place : As already indicated in step 9
of the section "Rules Creating ".

Concluding remarks

Once again we must be aware that each group of children is different, and we must adapt to the
group as much as possible. It is very probably that the rules are basically the same in all groups, with
small variations. That is fine, each group has different problems and that is why the rules can also be
different too.

It is very important that children participate in the whole process, and all of them do it. If there
is someone participating unless it is to encourage participating, but taking care not to put all the
attention to that person. If you are an introverted or shy person and put attention on it, it will close
even more.