AnonyMouse_3707 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 Hi everyone, I joined this site over ten years ago but haven't used it for 7 yrs! Guess what?? I'm back in Reception and I have to say I feel like an NQT again! I've been teaching for 18 yrs but this current class is proving to be a real challenge - it's their tidying up skills!!! Oh my gosh!!! They are non- existent! I've tired modelling: showing them exactly what to do, tidy up music, stopping their play and reminding them! I've tried humour, being cross etc etc! I know it's early days but they don't seem to be responding at all!!! Please help! If I can crack this one thing, or at least make some head way, I'll feel slightly less stressed!!!! Thanks guys!!! Zx
AnonyMouse_5970 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 One of the things we do is take time to tidy up. When children are new/young/inexperienced they need to be shown in detail what to do. We do an area at a time with a few children, showing them what it means to tidy up. Can you put all these pencils in this pot, then it goes right here on the shelf. These dolls sleep in a bed with a blanket just like this. All these Duplo bricks go in this big box, let's fill it right up. Then X and Y can carry it and I'll show you where it lives. I'll admit we're a day nursery, so might have more adults to support children doing this. But I think it's really worthwhile taking as much time over tidying up as you would showing children how to manage snack time or how to sit and listen to a story. In the past, we have used a puppet that we call Tidy Up Tyler who comes and oversees tidy up time. He's been 'on holiday' (in the cupboard!) for a while but has just sent the children a post card as he's on his way back... 2
AnonyMouse_3707 Posted September 9, 2013 Author Posted September 9, 2013 Thank u! I agree completely! I've been trying to do as you say, I find it's not so much the ability, it's their willingness! When there's 30 children there are lots of avoidance tactics! I need ways of encouraging them! I like the puppet idea! X
AnonyMouse_19782 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 Could it be made into a team sport?split them up into teams each team tackles a different area of classroom each day and win points for neatness,speed etc as they get better at it then a small reward at end of week or day depending upon their ability to wait. They could choose a name for their teams sorry getting carried away now !
AnonyMouse_3707 Posted September 9, 2013 Author Posted September 9, 2013 Great idea, thanks Panders x
AnonyMouse_25639 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 We nominate one person to be a tidy-up inspector who wears a hat and carrys a clipboard. Children are given specific areas to tidy up and with adult help (sometimes lots of help) the areas are tidied whilst we play the tidy up song. As soon as the area is tidied the children sit down and the inspector comes along with his/her clipboard and inspects the area making ticks or whatever to indicate the area is tidied. The children love this and thoroughly get involved and the inspector often finds things that are in the wrong place etc. and very often gives a cross if they think it is not tidy. The activity is done in a very lighthearted way with lots of laughs (mostly by staff about the comments made by the inspector as some of them can be very tough and much more than we would be). Some children need a great deal of encouragement and need lots of adult support giving them items and telling them where to put them. 1
AnonyMouse_26037 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 I've been thinking about this all evening. Never really used to feel like I managed tidying up well but by the end of the year I really felt like my (reception) class got it. They were also very positively praised by our Y4/5 teacher who was somew. hat in awe of their ability to follow quite complicated instructions when tidying. So I'm sharing what I did last year and what I'm aiming to do this year. I do think it takes a good while and lots of patience! Having said that, my children have only been in 3 days and I can see an improvement already. It's a bit of a progressive thing - I add more conditions/details as the year goes on. I start off with allowing LOTS of time. I plan for myself and any other adults in the room to be tidying up the trickiest areas (for me it's role play and our making area) and that adult talks through what they're doing as they tidy as well as giving specific jobs in the area. Then I introduce a timer - I use an online egg timer which 'rings' when it runs out. I give them 5 minutes but allow at least twice that. If it's a real tip I do allow more time on the timer. If they beat the timer they get a whole class 'point' which goes towards a treat when they've reached a certain number. At Christmas last year I introduce tidy teams just as Panders describes. I rotated which area they got to tidy on a daily basis as some are more work than others. The winning team got a smiley face on a chart. These were added up as the week went on and the team with the most smileys at the end of the week got special tidying up stickers and to move their name up on our behaviour ladder (whole school thing). How I gave smileys evolved as the year went on. At one point I awarded 2 smileys for those who were first and 1 for second place. Then by the end of the year I was giving every team that finished in the given time a smiley and the winning team got an extra one. Tidy teams worked brilliantly and I'll be introducing it much earlier this year. The smiley chart had an added bonus for all sorts of mathematical calculation/problem solving opportunities! If one particular person wasn't tidying up and letting their team down then their name would be added to the smiley chart. When they redeemed themselves it would be rubbed off again. If it was still there at the end of the week and their team won they wouldn't get the stickers. I never once had to carry out that thread - partly because I focused on them and gave specific jobs so they couldn't not tidy. This wasn't introduced until much later in the year! Throughout the year I gave lots of very specific praise once we'd sat on the carpet after tidying e.g. X was brilliant at tidying today I really liked the way you looked carefully to see where to put things. I label as much as I can with words and pictures (things do get stuffed in any old place still but it's not as bad as it used to be). Some ad hoc things I did - if a particular area hadn't been tidied properly for a while (e.g. the construction boxes) and I'd had to give it a big sort out. I'd point that out, ask for special help with that area, re-explain what I was expecting. Sometimes I appointed inspectors (usually the helpers for the day) and if an area hadn't been tidied properly that team might not get their smiley! I've taken photos of a tidy area and put them up so children can see what it should look like. I think that's it. Sorry for the long post; I hadn't realised we did so many things! :blink: 2
Guest Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 I was quite similar to Helen actually. Would use a timer on whiteboard and the children would love to try and 'beat the timer!' For the actual jobs themselves I would give each child a card to wear around their neck with their job on (as many children would conveniently 'forget' their job!) and also had photos of what the area looked like neat and tidy as well. At the end of the day, you need to work with something which suits your particular children. I use past tense here because I am now in Nursery and in the middle of coming up with a system which works for those children! It's all fun in early years isn't it?! Hehe...
AnonyMouse_19782 Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 I was quite similar to Helen actually. Would use a timer on whiteboard and the children would love to try and 'beat the timer!' For the actual jobs themselves I would give each child a card to wear around their neck with their job on (as many children would conveniently 'forget' their job!) and also had photos of what the area looked like neat and tidy as well. At the end of the day, you need to work with something which suits your particular children. I use past tense here because I am now in Nursery and in the middle of coming up with a system which works for those children! It's all fun in early years isn't it?! Hehe... Don't forget to come back and share that little nugget will you! Any new system in nursery is worth having a go
AnonyMouse_3707 Posted September 10, 2013 Author Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks so much guys!! I've not had time to digest all that's here yet - I'm gonna read it properly later! I did try the tidy inspectors thing today! It deffo made a difference thank u xxxx
Guest Posted October 7, 2013 Posted October 7, 2013 A late reply but my new reception class were exactly the same so I've introduced the theme music for Mission Impossible (from YouTube). It's about three and a half minutes long and once I turn it on the children know instantly that it's tidy up time. It's really motivating and exciting so all the children are suddenly so much keener to tidy up! All the children know that by the end of the music they must be on the carpet with arms and legs crossed, and I then take a quick 'survey' of the areas where I might choose some children to edit an area that could've been tidied better, and re-confirm my expectations. Hope that's useful for you
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