Nursery school age and tidying up?

Question

I work in a nursery school and we encourage the children to help with the tidying up of their toys at the end of each session,
Most are eager to help, but there is always the odd half a dozen that wander around ignoring you or carrying on playing or nipping off to the loo at that certain point. Its not fair on the others.
we have tried a reward system where best tidyier upper takes home our special bear, and also 4 best ones get to go on the outdoor bicycles first.
But because of turnover of staff during week that isnt always constantly adhered too.
anyone with any other tips that may work with this

Answer 1

My son was a prime example of this problem. He would wonder round calling "Tidy Up Time"

I think the only thing you can do, is keep an eye on those who don't help and give the a task to do. For my son at least Tidy Up is too general. If they said "Daniel could you please put all the crayons away" he did it.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Maybe try a different approach to the whole tidying up idea- if the children see it as something that is rewarded, they may view it as a chore- a bit like when kids get work to do in detention. (This suggests that learning is bad and a punishment, rather it should be seen as a privilige).

Announce that it is time to make the nursery look good (rather than 'tidy up' and get them them to tidy up in pairs- put one of the 'lazy' ones with one of the 'tidier' ones. Also allocate an area for each pair to tidy. If that area is not tidied up, then they can not go on to the next thing. Also say that the children can decide who has done the best job at the end- they can then see how teamwork can achieve things.

Answer 3

Depends on the age of the children. For children over the age of three you could use an egg timer as a visual aid in order to put a limit on the time it should take to tidy up. Most children are eager to tidy up quickly before the sand runs out as long as it is reinforced that the more people that help the less time it will take.
You could also try making it more fun by singing a tidy up song as you sing. Ie "every body tidy up, tidy up, tidy up, everybody tidy up, just like me" to the tune of polly put the kettle on.
You may not be able to get all children involved but if you have the majority helping, well thats a start.
Give the children a five minute warning for tidy up time to allow time to finish what they are doing. It may just be that the children not helping were absorbed in what they were doing & not quite ready to tidy up.

Answer 4

It is perfectly normal for some children to wander off... Sounds like some adults too! In my preschool we do a quick clean with everyone helping and the teachers will hand specific toys to the non-cleaners to put away. When we are more or less clean we have everyone get in a circle and try to spot things that are not done. They raise their hands when the have found something and then are given permission to leave the clrcle and go put it away. This helps everyone feel proud of knowing where everything goes and how nice and neat the room is when we are completely finished. We are doing this with 2.5 - 3 yrs with really good success. I think so much with preschoolers is in the teacher delievery and not letting little Johnny who won't sit down, won't clean up & is a distraction to everyone work that last nerve!

We do use clean-up songs during the group period - Barney clean-up in Spanish & Help me Rhonda by the Beatles. This gives us a definate timed element to the group clean-up.

Answer 5

Get a rotating job board so Johnny cleans the puzzles Jim cleans the house center ect. and then rotate the jobs. Let the kids know that they are the craft area(or whatever) expert for the day and make it fun! This will also help you to save the job for when the avoiders are done their visit to the loo. catch the avoiders doing a great job and praise them up like crazy. You can also call on them to be a "special" helper... Oh Donna you have a big job at the block centre I know Johnny i know are an expert at blocks I bet you could help her get it done in no time. I have also made cleaning up be a race with timers or a count down.

Answer 6

Give them a choice - tidy up or sit on the floor where there are no toys to play with

My children's Nursery sorted it by allocating specific jobs to each child. Some jobs are more prized than others so they all cooperated well in the hope of being chosen.

Answer 7

Assign each child to a task. When it's time to put stuff away, gather everyone together in the middle of the room and give each child something to pick up. If you have more kids than toy types, assign colors (or shapes, or sizes, types, etc) too. Say, "Johnny pick up all the red legos.". "Callie, pick up all the blue blocks." and so on.
This works because it breaks the task down further than just "put the toys away", which makes some kids selectively deaf, or they just can't get their minds around the huge task. That, and everyone sees that someone is slacking. Never underestimate the awesome power of peer pressure.
I hope this helps.

Answer 8

I use the Barney "Clean up" song. Explain that we are all going to help to tidy when then song comes on , lets see who cleans up the most. If that fails get the children who have helped before not clear up and those have havent to do so and explain why this is going to happen. Staff should all be reminded of the need for consistency at the next staff meeting.
hope this helps

Answer 9

I always find that bad actions should have reactions to make a point. If the child refuses to tidy up, then leave them out of anactivity that they really enjoy doing, and they will feel the pinch. No tidying up, no painting or colouring or sit them in a corner to worka alone when doing group activities. You will soon see a change in behaviour.

Answer 10

our nursery has tidy up music and this seems to work really well, my own children will tidy up if I play something, my friends nursery also uses this but they use the mission impossible tune which I find really funny