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April 23, 2016

The Secret to Motivating Students to Help Clean

Do you ever get to the end of the day and think to yourself, “How in the world did my classroom floor get to be so messy?” or “Where in the world did my clean classroom go?” I did all the time.  I found myself crawling on the floor at the end of the day picking up crayons or paper scraps so that the janitor did not have to worry about messing up their vacuum cleaner due to our mess!

The Secret to Motivating Students to Help Clean the Classroom-Genius!!

I have two words for you that can fix this–Treasure Trash!

A co-worker shared this tip with me 5 years ago and my students always loved it! At the end of every day as students are packing up, I simply find a piece of trash on the floor with my eyes and remember that piece.  Students pick up trash and show me their little handfuls of scraps until someone picks up the “treasure trash”.  The person who finds the “treasure trash” gets a trip to the treasure box!

It’s genius and it works, my friends!  I promise!

Now your classroom floor can look like this again at the end of each day!

Here is a GENIUS secret tip to help motivate your students to clean up the classroom. Classroom organization starts with a clean room! This idea works great with toddlers, preschool, and elementary students! #classroomorganization #organizationtips #elementary #preschool #toddlers

Looking for more ideas on keeping a neat and tidy classroom? Follow my Classroom Organization Pinterest board!

 

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Happy teaching! - Amanda

Comments

  1. Marianne says

    July 16, 2017 at 10:48 am

    We do a 30 second cleanup at the end of the day – everyone helps and we work for 30 seconds only. With 34 kids some days it dorsnt even take 30 seconds to be spotless!!!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Leave School Before Dark - Mrs. Richardson's Class says:
    December 31, 2016 at 7:01 am

    […] my students how to help and that was HUGE. They filed their papers in their mail boxes. They played treasure trash and cleaned up the floor at the end of every day. They helped me sort books back into book tubs […]

    Reply
  2. Classroom Time Savers - Mrs. Richardson's Class says:
    March 19, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    […] more about it HERE in this blog […]

    Reply

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