Did you know in schools in Japan that students are responsible for cleaning the school? Yep! Many schools do not employ custodians to take care of the school, it’s on the students! {And if they do have custodians, it’s to help with the tasks that children cannot do}
Get the Students Cleaning
The practice, called Gakko Soji, is a way to develop responsible citizens of the community. Children are tasked with tidying the classroom, cleaning the bathrooms, and even serving lunch to their classmates {among many other jobs!} The final block of each day is dedicated to tidying up the classroom before the students leave for the day.
Zero Prep Math Centers
Make it a Daily Routine for Your Classroom
The final 7-10 minutes of the day in my first grade are dedicated to what we lovingly call Tidy Time! My grade level partner Lisa came up with this amazing idea that is now part of our {almost!} daily routine! Our school has early release days on Wednesday so we can only do Tidy Time four days a week.
To begin, the students first peek into their own desks and tidy it all up! That means no loose papers, no crayons floating around, and books and folders in a neat pile! Taking time each day to peek inside cuts down on A LOT of missing library books, supplies, and other random stuff that ends up lost in the abyss of those desks.
To incentivize students, the Desk Superheroes visit from time to time. If I peek inside a student’s desk and it’s sparkling {well, as sparkly as these old desks can get!} I’ll leave a Desk Superhero along with a small treat. The treats might be a fancy pencil, a sparkly sticker, or even a “Bear Hug” {which is our school-wide PBIS certificate}
It’s crazy how motivating a tiny little slip of paper can be!
After the desks are clean, students then pack up their backpacks for the day. They swing by the cubbies to gather any papers and books that go home and head outside to the classroom patio to fill their backpacks up!
Once backpacks are zipped up {they’ll try to skip this step to get started on Tidy Time!} they head back into the classroom to find their job for the day!
Tidy Time Display for Elementary Classroom
There are so many ways you can share jobs with your students – write it on the board, hang it on a poster, yell it out each day – whatever works for you!
But, I’m sharing a freebie for what’s worked in my classroom. You can grab it at the end!
Tidy Time Jobs by Week
I created a slide with the four jobs that were necessary for Room 8: tidying the library, picking up scraps off the floor, wiping off tabletops with baby wipes, and cleaning the classroom patio.
Just below each job, I list the day and the table responsible. At the beginning of the year, it takes a bit of practice for kids to understand how to read the “chart” but there are always enough kids who get it that you can get started. Very quickly kids pick up the cleaning routine!
I choose to only project one slide because I’m lazy – ha! There’s no real good answer other than I don’t want to scroll through and post the wrong day {to be quickly corrected by a six-year-old 😂}
In the freebie, I do include a weekly version with five days!
Tidy Time Jobs by Day
The other way you can let your students know his/her job is with a daily Tidy Time slide. Simply project the slide of the day and off they go!
Both four-day and five-day versions of these slides are included in the freebie, too.
Everything is editable in the Google Slides version that I’ll send your way. You can change up the table numbers, icons, and wording. Go nuts!
Classroom Jobs for Students & Cleaning Recap
Having students help clean can establish a stronger sense of responsibility and respect among elementary students.
This free “Tidy Time” printable can help you keep those classroom jobs organized!
Want another quick cleaning tip? Make sure to check out this Mystery Scrap post!
