The Clean Up Championships

Sometimes a classroom can look like more like a rubbish tip at the end of the day , not the best way to leave a classroom! Cleaning it yourself is a) going to take ages and b) hardly teaching children to be responsible. 

I like to have a little incentive to give children to make the room spotless at the end of the day.

Materials:

Timer (5 minutes is plenty)

Prize Box ( include a few little things like pretty pencils, cool erasers, funky sharpeners, balloons and trading cards) 

Method:

1. Ask children if they can see what's wrong with the classroom (steer the chat toward the issue of the mess)

2. Ask what we need to do with our messy room (surely someone is going to say clean it up)

3. Explain we're going to do the clean up championships... Championships involve prizes! 

4. Show your prizes 

5. Tell the children there is a mystery item that either needs to be put in the bin or put away; the one person who finds it and puts it where it needs to be gets the prize! 

6. Let them know they can't ask "is this it?" You will be watching and reveal the winner when the 5 minute timer is finished.

7. Turn the timer over and let them get to work.

The beauty of this game is you drop clues like "Ohhh.. Maybe it's over by the window" "Or it just might be the bookshelves". Watch the classroom become as neat as a pin and remember to reward the finder of the mystery item. You can even use this game to write a procedure the next day if you're called back on the same class.