Ideas for Clean Up Time #2

Piggy-Back Cleanup Songs

Have the children sing songs during clean up.  It helps the transition move along quickly and happily.  They could even help you write a song – a good literacy exercise.

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 It’s Time to Clean Our Room (Farmer in the Dell)  It’s time to clean our room. It’s time to clean our room. We had some fun and now we're done; It’s time to clean our room” 

Or you could say “pick up blocks” “hang the clothes” “find a book” or other specific tasks that need to be done.

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Are You Helping -- (Frere Jacque)  Are you helping?  Are you helping? Pick up toys. Pick up toys. Let us all be helpers. Let us all be helpers, Girls and boys, Girls and boys.

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It's Time To Clean Up -- (Happy Birthday) It's time to clean up or Let's pick up the blocks  (Substitute other areas in your classroom)

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Pick Up Something – (If You're Happy and You Know I).  If your name is Jacob, pick up something. If your name is Abby, pick ups something. If your name is Elena, if your name is Hunter, if your name is Tommy, pick up something.

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Put the Toys Away -- (London Bridge Is Falling Down) (Child’s name) put the toys away, toys away, toys away. (Child’s name) put the toys away. It’s cleanup time.  Additional verses:  Use other children’s names. You can also substitute toys with puzzles, books, blocks, etc.

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Everybody Picks Up (London Bridge is Falling Down). Everybody picks up toys, picks up toys, picks up toys. Everybody picks up toys, to make our classroom clean.

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Who Is Going to Pick Up -- (Muffin Man)  Who is going to pick up blocks, pick up blocks, pick up blocks, who is going to pick up blocks, and be a classroom helper?

Repeat with child's name:  Sally is picking up blocks….

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Time to Clean Up -- (tune- Twinkle Little Star) Twinkle, twinkle little star, Time to clean up where you are. Put each toy back in its place; Keep a smile upon your face. Twinkle, twinkle little star, Time to clean up where you are.

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Time to Clean Up -- (Oh My Darlin’ Clementine)Freeze. Freeze. Time to clean up, Time to clean up pleeeaaazzzeee. Let's all help to clean our classroom. So we can go to circle time (or next activity in your schedule).

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Adapted from:

Gayle’s Preschool Rainbow. (2009)  Preschool nursery rhymes for transition times.  http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/transition-rhymes.htm -- downloaded 6/22/2009

Perpetual Classroom (2006) Let’s clean up. http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/cleaning_up.htm -- downloaded 6/20/2009

What piggy-back songs have you used?

Conflict Resolution I

            One of the major goals of preschool teachers and parents alike is that children enter Kindergarten with good social skills.  An area of particular concern is conflict and conflict resolution.  Preschool is often the first environment where children learn to get along with others, with the exception of siblings or perhaps a few friends.  For the first time they learn, practice, and invent ways to negotiate disagreements with other children (Lokon, 1995; Sheldon, 1996; O’Brien, Roy, Jacobs, Macaluso, and Peyton, 1999).  Most disputes among children benefit their development, though some parents and educators perceive conflicts as something to be prevented, avoided, or squelched.   Researchers have found that conflicts are essential for the development and socialization of young children (Periolat and Nager, 1988; Rende and Killen, 1992; Wheeler, 1994; Lokon, 1995; Sims, Hutchins and Taylor, 1997).   While not all conflicts are necessarily constructive, they all help foster empathy or a better understanding of others, which is essential to healthy emotional development, not to mention that their resolution is a necessary social skill at school and throughout life.

            Children begin to develop gender identification and separation around the third year of life (Sims, Hutchins, and Taylor, 1998).  Literature on conflict indicates that females are generally found to use more conciliatory verbal strategies such as negotiation and males tend to use more competitive and aggressive resolution strategies such as hitting or verbal insults (Wilson, 1988; Laursen and Hartup, 1989; Sheldon, 1992; Wheeler, 1994; Sims, Hutchins, and Taylor, 1998).  Vespo, Pedersen and Hay (1995) indicate that gender is not a factor.  There is also indication that competitive and aggressive strategies are more prevalent with younger preschoolers, and older preschoolers more often use conciliatory strategies (Laursen and Hartup, 1989; Wilson, 1992).  Rende and Killen (1992) report that events that precede conflict episodes (antecedent events) play a part in the choice of strategies chosen for resolution.

            Young children acquire gender identification and learn about the roles expected of them as representatives of their gender.  Gendered behavior is learned at a young age as children learn about the world around them and how to behave in that world.  Research on the development of gendered behavior indicates that gender segregation begins around the third year of age. While there seems to be no gender difference in the initiation of conflict, conflict management strategies and outcomes appear to be areas in which gendered behavior is apparent (Vespo et al, 1995; Sims et al, 1998).