Tidying up can sometimes be a hard skill to learn. Children become so engrossed in what they are doing that they want to continue all day long! However, there are key times in the day such as lunch and rhyme time, when it is important that we put things away ready to move onto the next thing. Children will often leave things on the floor as they move onto their next interest... they are busy, they are engaged, they forget! However, leaving resources on the floor can obviously have serious consequences such someone tripping over objects or resources getting broken. We encourage children to put away the things that they have been using before they move onto the next thing and adults model how to do this too. We are all part of the team.

Children need a warning so that they can prepare to move on to the next part of the daily routine. Staff will go around with a picture of our tidy up bell to show them that they have five minutes before it is tidy time. This helps the children to mentally prepare for the transition. For some children this is really hard so staff will be on hand to support anyone that finds times of transition difficult.

Shortly before the bell is rung, we give one last reminder and then the bell is sounded. Everyone stops what they are doing and show their hands to signal they are ready. We use this little song as we tidy up which tells of working together and helping each other. Everyone is expected to join in... it is an important life skill after all!

Here are the words...

Tidy up time, tidy up time
Help your friends, help your friends
We can work together, let's all help each other
Tidy up, tidy up.

Finally we all put our hands into the middle and say 'teamwork'. After all... 'Teamwork, makes the dream work!'!

We hope you find this useful, perhaps you can use it at home too?