End of the Day Jobs | The Ultimate Classroom Clean Up Routine
I have written in the past about sitting down in the afternoon to create a to-do list for the next day, and in those posts, I have eluded to the idea that your kids could be doing their “end of day” jobs during that time, while you’re thinking ahead to the next day. I always have promised that I would come back and explain that further at another time. I’m finally getting around to it!
Most teachers carve out time for packing up at the end of the day, but I always found this time rushed, not-purposeful, and really a way for the kids to create a bigger mess as they pull things out of desks and cubbies and haphazardly pack up backpacks. I got so sick of looking at a cluttered cubby area, and desks with junk spilling out of them, that I started to get pretty strict about the end-of-day routine. I also had several tiny tasks that I wanted to see done in the room more often, but I didn’t necessarily want to be responsible for them (making sure laptops were plugged in each night, dusting computers, wiping doorknobs with a Clorox wipe…the list goes on).
So, here’s what I came up with. I’ve tweaked this routine with different schedules and different groups of kids, but for the most part, I have stuck to this same routine each night. Here are 4 steps for a simple end-of-day routine that leaves your room cleaner than it was when the day began!
Homework Check
The ‘homework check’ signals to the kids that it’s time to grab their backpacks. I had ‘girl weeks’ and ‘boy weeks’, which dictated which group would be allowed to go into the cubby room first each morning and afternoon to unpack and pack up. Let’s pretend in this example that it’s a girl week. I would call out, “Homework check, girls!”. All of the girls in my class would pull their take home folders out of their desks and hold them, open, in the air for me to see. If I could see their math page (because that was my typical homework assignment) in their folder, I would call them by name to go to the cubby room to grab their backpacks, lunches, etc.
My rule is to grab what you need from the cubby room and come right back to your desk. It gets too crowded in their for more than a handful of kids to be in it at once. I’ve had years where I had a wall of cubbies lining the back of my room, rather than a separate closet for cubbies, and I had this same rule. Stomped on fingers, kids tripping over backpacks on the floor…it’s all a mess. Get what you need and get out, kids.
Grab your card and wait at your desk.
After a student has been dismissed to pack up, they will pack, put their backpack on the floor to the side of their desk (to clear space for stacking chairs), and grab their job card from whatever designated spot you keep them. You may choose to hand them out while kids are packing up, or put them in ABC order in a basket so the kids can grab them on their own.
When they have their card, they stand quietly behind their chair. All students standing behind their chair signals that you’re ready for the DJ to play a song.
DJ chooses a song. Everyone else does their job.
I had a “student helper” every week. I did this in ABC order, just to make sure I didn’t lose track, but I also had years where I pulled names from a jar and other more fun things. But just going down your roster in ABC order still ensures that everyone has more than one turn at being the helper during the year.
The helper’s job is essentially to do all of the stuff during the day that constitutes a classroom job, that I am too lazy to keep up with. I LOVE the end of day jobs, because they legitimately help me. I am not a fan of during-the-day jobs, because they disrupt me. So, everyone gets their own end-of-day job, but only the student helper of the week gets to do things like be line leaders, run papers to the copier, fill up my water bottle (because that’s an important job!), and more. One of the big jobs the kids looked forward to was getting to be the “DJ” during the clean up time at the end of the day.
The DJ gets to choose the song that everyone will do their end-of-day job to. You can create a Spotify playlist of Kidz Bop covers, the Frozen soundtrack, The Greatest Showman soundtrack , whatever those songs are on Fortnite…you get the gist. All things that are school-approved. Let the DJ select a song to play. The second the song starts, the job time begins.
In my room, you had until the song was over to finish your job. That gives you, on average, 3 minutes a day to do your job. Sometimes we had days where we beat it by a lot and could just have a sing along for 90 seconds! It really depends on the day and how messy the room is!
Return the job cards when the job is done.
This is self-explanatory, but let me explain it anyways. As a student finishes their job, they turn their card back in. You can have students turn cards into you, or return them to the basket where you keep them. Your choice. I had kiddos put them back in the basket, just because I was using that time to make a checklist, make a stack of things to drop off in the office on my way out the door, etc.
When all cards are returned, the classroom should be pretty dang clean!
That’s it! A simple, but highly effective set of steps for the end of the school day. If your classroom management routines are already pretty strong, the kids will not use this time to goof off. Give them a reason to take ownership of your room by making them part of keeping it nice! Explaining why this is important, and how this benefits them (they have a clean space to learn in, they have nice things to use, there will be less germs, etc.), can inspire them to want to do a great job for you and for their learning environment.
If you want to use my pre-made job cards, you can check them out here! They can be laminated, or just left on card stock. TEACHER HACK: If you write on lamination with sharpie, and then color over it with expo marker later, the sharpie will wipe right off! You can use this to assign and re-assign jobs, while only printing the cards one time!
If you want to see other Simple Classroom Solutions, check out these blog posts!
