In order to teach children how to be responsible, it can be helpful to give your students some responsibilities within the classroom. Helping out with school chores, like stacking books neatly, can develop a classroom community spirit and of course it gives the teacher a break from the menial tasks that need doing every day.
Here are some of the ways in which your classroom chores can be divided up fairly, to give your pupils the best chance of getting involved with the day-to-day running of your school and in turn learning the importance of responsibility.
Deciding on a system that works
There are many different duties that you can assign to your pupils, based on their level of maturity. Look around your classroom and decide what jobs you would like the pupils to help with, but more importantly, look for duties that they can be trusted to handle. For instance, you wouldn’t ask a child in year one to fill your water jug from the kitchen and carry it back by themselves.
It is also important to make a chore rotation system that’s easy for everyone to understand; you can achieve this in a few ways. You can either assign a different job for every member of your class that rotates weekly, or you can concentrate on a few well-defined chores that can be rotated fortnightly, or even pick one star helper that helps out with everything on any given day.
Fairness will be a vital factor in your chore system too, make sure that the selection process is inclusive of everyone and pupils are rewarded for their participation. If someone in your class feels that they haven’t had a fair ‘go’ at their responsibility, they will certainly let you know about it and you may not get full co-operation from them in the future. You must also remember to have substitute helpers ready to stand-in if any of your helpers are absent from school.
Use of visual aids
Younger children love using props and visual aids in their learning so incorporate some of these in your chore system to get them inspired to participate. Maybe they could wear a special sash or hat while they carry out their duty? But what is most important is how you display the chore rotation system; pupils have to be clear on what is expected of them each day so make sure that the chart you use is attractive and easy to follow, even for the children that can’t read yet.
And lastly, don’t forget to allow 10 minutes at the end of each day in order for the children to carry out their duties. Always having to do their chores at the same time each day will help them get into good routines.
Suggestions of Classroom Duties
Here is a run-down of some of the many chores that teachers have instilled the help of their pupils for in the past:
Line Leader – Someone who makes sure everyone is lined up silently and leads the class into assembly
Door holder
Librarian – Someone makes sure the books are collected and neatly put back on shelves
Computer Monitor – Someone who makes sure that the computers are all switched off properly
Attendance monitor – Someone who takes the register back to reception
Chair Stacker
Plant Waterer
Pet Feeder
Weather Reporter – Someone who checks the weather forecast each morning
Technician – Someone who turns the lights off after class or turns off the overhead projector etc..
Bathroom Monitor – 1 boy, 1 girl who checks the toilets are stocked up with loo roll each day
Board Erasers
Snack Distributors
Pencil Sharpeners
Desk Monitors – Someone who checks the desks and working areas are tidied after activities
Paper Passers – Someone who hands out/ collects paperwork
Cloak room monitor – Someone who checks all the coats are hung up neatly
Reporter – This person writes a daily summary of what your class got up to that day, to put in a book that everyone can look back on at the end of the year
Photographer – The photographer takes one picture every day of something that happened in class, to go with the end of year book.
If you have any more wonderful ideas, please share them in the comments box below.