Usually when I contribute a post to The MEHRIT Centre blog, I do so as a way to share reflections, celebrate a success, and discuss some possible next steps. My posts are always about what I know to be true. This doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes along the way, and I even share some of these mistakes in my blogs, but in the end, there always seems to be a positive outlook.
This post is different though. That’s not because it’s about something negative, but instead, about something where I still don’t have all of the answers. My teaching partner Paula and I, are certain though that these answers must lie in Self-Reg.
I love my job, and always look forward to my time in the classroom. It’s honestly where I’m happiest! There’s really only one moment of the day where I consistently struggle, and that’s when it’s time to tidy-up. We always have a big block of uninterrupted play (usually about 3 1/2-4 hours worth of time), and as you can imagine, the mess at the end of this playtime is HUGE! In the past, we’ve tried some different ways to conquer this mess, including:
- cleaning up one area of the room at a time.
- tackling the biggest messes before calling for a full class “tidy.”
- using a Dance Tidy, as a way to feel calmer as we also clean.
In theory, all of these ways should still work, but they don’t. Our kids are different this year, and the tidy-up time seems to be more stressful than it has been in the past. We have a younger group of students — more than half of our JKs were three until November or December — and while we’ve tried to clean up zones of the room first, as soon as we turn around, these students are back in these areas playing again. It’s like a constant battle of mess making and cleaning up, and by the end of the process, Paula and I feel as though we need a nap. 🙂 We’ve tried the Dance Tidy as a way to make us also feel calmer during clean up time, but when we put on the music, all of the kids seem to stop what they’re doing and dance. Even those students that used to tidy, have stopped doing so. This just leads to Paula and I feeling frustrated because the cleaning has stopped, the music continues, but the work has not. Now what?
Paula and I have spent a lot of time discussing this problem, and we truly believe that dysregulation is at the heart of the issue. Here is what we know:
- It doesn’t help that the lack of cleaning up is making us feel stressed. Are the students responding to our stress, and is this just increasing the issue?
- When we’re trying to clean up, the class next door to us (with no full wall in between us) is often getting ready for home. This means that it’s really loud, and the noise carries into our room. Does the additional noise, also create additional stress, additional distractions, and a decrease in productive cleaning?
- Even our students that know how to organize materials well, and can clean up messes with limited instructions, are not doing so. They’re wandering around the room, and as they wander, the other children follow. Soon we have a lot of walking, but not a lot of cleaning, which just increases our stress level, creating a vicious circle of problems.
- We’re also trying to clean up at the end of a busy day. Our kids have not been outside since 10:30 in the morning, and while they had a big block of time outside then, it’s now four hours since that play happened. They’re tired. They need fresh air and movement. This is not the ideal time to tackle a challenging task, such as cleaning up. If we try to clean up earlier in the day though, we lose the value of the deeper learning, critical thinking, and increased math and literacy skills, that come with this bigger block of play. What’s the answer?
We’ve tried a few different solutions that seem to be a little more successful. This first option has students cleaning up some areas of the room and then moving to the carpet to read together. Paula and I can then work with a handful of children to finish the tidy-up process, while kids also support each other on the carpet in both literacy and math.
The other solution again involves cleaning up some areas of the room first, but then moving with the kids to a new space. This helps ensure that what children just tidied up doesn’t get messy again. It took us over an hour to clean up the other day using this method, but the clean up process was less stressful than usual. Maybe a slow clean up with some good conversations along the way, is beneficial! Relationships are at the heart of Self-Reg, so is it these connections during tidying up, which helps decrease the stress for everyone involved? (That said, listening to my voice in the song below makes me think that there was still some stress involved, but singing certainly helped. Was it this singing that calmed me, and ultimately, made a difference for the kids? Possibly.)
It was as I continued to think about this cleaning up conundrum that I read Susan Hopkins’ latest post on The MEHRIT Centre blog. Maybe the biggest area of frustration that Paula and I have here is that we know that these kids can clean up, and can do so well. Every single child seems to need support during tidy-up time though, and while we know some of the stressors at play that are likely leading to this need, we’re constantly discussing why our “best cleaners” are wandering instead of cleaning.
Could the problem be that they need us to “lend them our calm,” so that they can respond differently? I wonder, how do you find this calm in yourself, when you’re feeling anything but calm? The huge mess, the knowledge that the minutes are ticking by and the day is almost through, the awareness that parents will be here soon, and the knowledge that we have to tackle the snowsuit catastrophe next, does not lend itself to that “calm” feeling. We try to stop everyone, take a deep breath together, find a little silence, and begin cleaning on a happy note, but I think that we need more than that. A great day ending in a stressful tidy makes for a very different feeling when it’s time to get ready for home.
Every day, Paula and I spend close to an hour discussing Self-Reg, cleaning up, and what we can do to change the atmosphere and the results. There has to be something. What do you do to help with these tidying up stressors? What impact might this more positive clean up routine have on your overall view of the day? While we know that stress behaviour is at play, and we’re trying to see the kids (and ourselves) through “soft eyes,” we wonder if there’s more that we could do. This experience has been a good reminder for me that as much as we may know and have already learned about Self-Reg, the learning process doesn’t end. Nobody is perfect. Can you help us as we continue to help our kids?
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Thanks for sharing! Do you find this helps with a calmer clean-up?
Aviva
oui c ‘est beaucoup plus calme . Le fait que la lumière est ferme et que la musique douce joue les enfants sont plus disponible et savent ce qui s’en viens par après . Soit le temps de sortir dehors ou gouter
This is great to hear! I love hearing about how others create this calm environment, even during clean-up time.
Aviva
Tidy up time can really be a challenge, but what has been working for me lately is I give them a 5 minutes warning and then count it down to zero, then l ask everyone to come and sit down on the carpet. l then call a child to go and pick up ten things and put them away and come back to sit . This seems to be working very well for me these days.
Thanks Edem for sharing what you do and what seems to work. I wonder if by all sharing our ideas, we might get some new ones to use in the future, knowing that each group of students is different and needs might vary.
Aviva
Edem,, I agree with you. Clen up time can get a bit challenging for me too. Our next step will be something simular to what you do. Kids are so smart and they pick up new challenges so fast. I can’t wait to give it a try. Taking turns in a great skill to learn. We do it in every day life.
Thanks for sharing, Tracy! I would love to hear how this approach goes for you. What changes, if any, did you make?
Aviva
We have key points in the day where spaces are re-set and then in between times the teachers rest areas no longer being used. If we have seen a child or group playing quite intensely or with significant focus, in a space but have moved on to a differeent space with their play, we may gently ask if they are finsished using the space and is it ok to sort it a bit so others can play there, otr so we have have morning tea (or what ever the next part of the day might be). They will tell us if they are still using it and we will say well let me know once you don’t need the space anymore I will be happy to help sort it again. Often with this approach they offer quite willingly to to help reset, or others sauntering by might see the adult sorting the space, ask what we are doing and then offer to help. We talk about making spaces beautiful and inviting for the next person to use, we migt also talk about that we are feeling thethe space isn’t safe to walk through (lots of trip hazards or toys they may be walk on or broken), depending on the type of play and how hazardous and chaotisc the environment has become. We notice the play changes once the spaces become busy and cluttered from lots of great play, and when we start sensing the change in play moving to something more heightened we gently suggest a calming activity, and then invite them to help make the space work better for the caming activity to happen in. So through out the day we actually use different techniques for resorting and resetting and recreating a bit of aesthectics and order back into the environment (both indoors and out), but we generally dont have an expectation that every child is tidying on mass all at once as it feels more like this becomes the punishment of their great play. There is not a single child through out some part of the day who doesnt enjoy a bit of resetting at some part of the day. The child who is lookig forward to helping bring out the lunch kai is often highly motivated to help sort and clear a space for getting the trolley through, which then also leads to them thinking about making the space near kai (food) area ready for relaxing activities after lunch. Different groups have their own little rituals and motivations for caring for their environemnt and their special resourses. It seems to work without too much stress. And feels calmer.
Thanks Natasha for sharing about your experiences! I love how you seem to take the lead from the child. I’d love to hear how others also support this transition time. It’s always great to know about different options, as maybe with various groups of students, we might need to change our approach. What do you think?
Aviva
I really have not been troubled with Children not doing clean up. We always tell the children it’s their play area and if you want to enjoy your play time you have to keep it clean. they all work together to get it done. It’s funny this came up just after clean up, I was saying to the Teacher I wonder if they are this fast at home. Because they do it well and fast. But if someone is having trouble let them maybe choose an area and they can rotate with the class everyday so they don’t get bored. Help them realize it’s they’re area and in order to have fun with out someone getting hurt.
Thanks for sharing Yvette! I’m glad this has worked out well for you. Do you find that your approach when clean-up is hard for some children is helpful? What do you think makes the difference? I’d love to hear more.
Aviva
I try to make a habit of cleaning up as we go, so before a child leaves one area, they reset the materials they used so they are ready for the next person. If materials have been left out unattended, I ask children nearby if they can help me. If something looks like it took a lot of time to build or someone might want to come back to that area as it is, we may leave a name card on it, or a more generalized note that simply says “Please do not tidy…we are not done with this yet”
Usually, if tidying is becoming hard for everyone involved, it’s a sign that there is too much in the room, and time to purge or cycle out some of the materials that have been out too long or not being used properly. We also think about where we put things away, and whether the shelves are too crowded for the children? (half full baskets are more inviting and easier to tidy than ones that are over-full)
Thanks for sharing, Aurora! I appreciate your thinking here. The interesting thing was that we actually did not have many materials in our classroom. If anything, we were on the smaller side of items. But clean up was still a challenge. It’s interesting to hear about what others do. Have you had problems before? How did you solve them? I’d love to hear more.
Aviva
I am glad you educators came up with a way to make it less stressful for you and the children to tidy up the room.
It is always good to take a step back and take some deep breaths and distress by playing music and singing . Plus getting the the children to tidy up one area of the room at a time, which I think ING it is less overwhelming and not assuming stressful plus thay are still learing to clean up after themselves.
Thanks for your ideas! Your comment is making me think a lot about the self component of Self-Reg. Might we all have some different ways that make the tidying up process seem less stressful? Curious to hear what you think.
Aviva
we have found a visual count down on the iPad is a great help. once they ear the timer go off they also see a circle that is filled in . Children encourage each other. It seams to help bring down the stress in the room for everyone.
This is great to hear, Lesley! I wonder what other tools have supported students. Maybe sharing different ideas here will support many of us!
Aviva
I work in Early ON. Children always attend with an adult. We do have situations were parents don’t encourage cleaning up. A brief word about it being every ones responsibility to help keep the site tidy and safe usually works.
We do have days when children are tired or excited or the adult clearly had a rough night and we just help out by letting it slide and cleaning up ourselves.
Another way I have found works every time is setting up a wash station and having them wash the toys.
Thanks for sharing, Ingrid! Your comment about the water station is an interesting one. I wonder if it’s the sensory component to this that makes the difference.
Aviva
When I was working in Early Childhood settings, we would give 2-minute warning with a visual clock as a reminder the session was coming to an end, all children would freeze when the timer went off. They would stay in the area they were playing in and clean up all materials and equipment before transitioning to carpet time (whole group). Prior to the play sessions the children were able to choose the song we would play to support all groups to packup by the time it had finished.
Thanks for sharing Cindy! How did this go? Were there any children that struggled? I would love to hear how you worked this through with them if it was a challenge.
Aviva
I have found packing up songs helpful, counting, and “freeze” followed by an encouraging statement or time reminder. Our clean up time is usually followed by eating time or going home time, so that is a motivator as well.
Thanks for sharing! Have you ever had students struggle a lot during this time? If so, what do you do? It’s always great to get new ideas from others!
Aviva
In our daily routine. Half way through the day, We take the time to restart the room.. what i mean by this is… cleaning up the room, putting toys away, adding new toys out, slightly rearranging the room, this way it feels like a total different room. Kids are less overwelmed and its all new to them and enjoy playing with all the toys again They dont get bored as fast. We sing our clean up song and encourage all the kids to help clean up the toys.
Thanks for sharing, Tracy! Have you ever taught any children that struggle with this reset? If so, what do you do? I would love to hear more.
Aviva
It’s been a while since I’ve taught in the classroom but this brought me back to my early teaching days in Grade 1. A clean up song is a great signal however due to the length of clean up time, perhaps some calming but energizing music could be played such as some classical Baroque music. Also is could be helpful for the little once to be learning up in anticipation of what is next on the schedule. What about having “Cleaning Buddies” followed by “Reading Buddies.” The older class could come in early and help their little reading partner tidy up and then when they’re done they get to read together! I’m not sure if Reading Buddies is still a thing – but it could be a good solution!
Thanks for sharing, Renee! I’ve often found reading buddies to be dysregulating for kids, but I wonder if it varies by students and classes. Curious to hear what others think.
Aviva