Jobs at school can help students build a sense of excitement, community, and interdependence. Tasks such as putting up the flag, cleaning the tables after lunch, or being the class helper give students the opportunity to exercise and practice decision-making and reasoning. They also give students a chance to be responsible in a meaningful way: the children know that completing their jobs helps their school, classmates, and/or teachers.
Upon returning to school in January, the Hoot Owl teachers noticed how much the students had matured since the beginning of the year and decided they were ready to take on more responsibility in the classroom. As part of a new project unit on cleaning, the class brainstormed ways to help keep their classroom clean. From that list came new classroom jobs that the students will take turns doing each week for the remainder of the year.
To kick off their jobs work, the class worked on a big cleaning task together – cleaning all the chairs in their classroom. Using buckets of soapy water and sponges, the students scrubbed down their chairs. They noticed that the water in the buckets didn’t look so clean when they were done, so we know the Hoot Owls did a great job of cleaning the chairs! After the chairs were scrubbed, they were rinsed off using the hose, and then students dried them. Some of the Hoot Owls took such pride in their work that they wanted to make sure the chair legs were shining!
FRIDAY BLOG 