Do you just cringe when you see inside a student desk? Or their seat pocket? I sure do!

No matter how you have your student’s materials or personal belongings in the classroom, it’s important to set aside time to give your students an opportunity to clean their classroom, which is their learning community. But you might be thinking- Katie, I have no time in my day for teaching much less cleaning!

I hear ya. BUT… I have incorporated a daily “tidy time” in the classroom for the past few years and I’m SO glad I did! It’s such a quick and simple thing that will really make a difference.

All it takes is about 5 minutes. For me, I do it twice a day right before recess and at pack up time. The we have a clean classroom ready for our afternoon.

Daily Cleaning

Students clean off their table or desk

If you have tidy time hallway through the day, this gets students in the mindset that we have done some work, yet we need to prepare for the other part of the day. They put away any papers, books, or random crayons that have popped out of their art box. If you do tidy time at the end of the day, then it teaches the students to get their area ready for the next day.

Students wipe their table or desk

Take this time to have students clean their tables. You can choose how you want this to look like. I’ve had a Surface Cleaner student job who passed out a cleaning wipe to each table spot or you can be charge of giving wipes out or have individual students get them. This teaches students responsibility for their own cleanliness in their work space.

Weekly Organization

On Friday afternoons, we have a whole classroom cleanup. I set aside time on my Friday afternoon to give students an opportunity to organize all their personal area and also different classroom areas. The first few times you do this you’ll have to show the students what to do for each part, and what to do when they’re done. Once students know what to do they love this time! They go to town, and then you leave for the weekend knowing your classroom is clean and organized.

Things to Think About

First you’ll have to list out the specific areas you want students to organize. Here are some ideas:

Student Areas

• Pencil box
• Desk
• Cubby
• Seat pocket

Classroom Areas

• Classroom library
• Math manipulatives
• Indoor recess toys
• Calendar area
• Bulletin board

Tidy Time and Classroom Cleanup Management

Yes, this can be a chaotic time helping 25 students do 5 things. BUT it doesn’t have to be. I make a Google Slide that shows what I want students to organize and how. You can type out a list or you can put up pictures. I personally use pictures (being a second grade teacher) and also it’s easier for students to quickly comprehend what do to in order to keep this time quicker.

You can divide students into groups to complete the different tasks so they aren’t all doing the same thing. Each of my students have a cubby labeled with their student number. I will divide the class by odd and even numbers. The odd number students will start with their cubby first, and the even number students start with their pencil box.

When they are done with that task, they give me a thumbs up and wait until I check. Then they switch. If students get done with both, I’ll give them either another task like organizing the classroom library or they can help another student.

You could also have rotations, much like centers, where you have 3 or 4 areas you want cleanup up. Put students into groups and set a timer. That will help with the speed for some students. The main idea of this is that if you do it often enough there won’t be too much to cleanup, therefore it won’t take a large amount of time.

Students Evaluate their Clean Classroom

When students are done doing a task, it’s so important to give them an opportunity to evaluate their work as an individual and as a whole group. You can use any system to help students evaluate the classroom.

I’m use a Thumb Rating method (thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, or thumbs down). You can also use smiley faces. With older students you could even have them give the classroom a grade.

You can also set up some type of reward system. This might be a good idea if your class as a whole is really on the struggle bus with messes (we know there are those classes…). Have a chart to display the ratings and also display the reward so students know what they are working towards.

All that to say…

And that’s it! Super quick. And once you get going with this, the students know the expectation and know what to do. Doing Tidy Time once or twice a day will greatly help keep your teacher heart happy and keep your room clean and organized!