Cleaning Cards - Why didn't I think of this before?

Ever have one of those days where all of a sudden you look around the classroom and realize it is all out of whack? Not like a hurricane hit it, but it's the little things that look big that bother you, like these:

• books/dictionaries are backwards or spine is faced IN!
• tape was obviously used because pieces students did not want are now stuck onto the counter
• random pencils (which are always scarce) are laying all over the place
• there is a colored pencil in the marker bin & scissors in the ruler bin (can't they read the label?)
• paper is in the recycling bin because someone was too lazy to walk across the room
• that same tiny piece of trash has been there for 3 days
• There is trash sitting directly by the trash can, not in it

You get the point.

I started going around just noting on post-its all the things that were bothering me and I was going to give "the talk."  However, I was too tired and then thought, "Hmm, I have enough post-its.  I am just going to have them each take one and that one post-it will be their responsibility."  Duh!  Why didn't I think of that before?  The end of the day worked like a charm, everything was cleaner than when they normally do it, I didn't have to remind anyone of what to do (or ask any favors), and a few students even said they liked the idea.  Go figure!

I told them they had to return the post-it so they could be "checked out" before they go pack up.  I even had my maintenance workers help me be checkers.  AMAZING!

Then I thought of doing this EVERYDAY because it worked so well.  (Note: I do have classroom jobs, but only 2 are maintenance and all are required to help clean at the end of the day.)  However, if I was going to use them more often, I would need sturdier paper.  Also, some kids needed more guidance instead of "clean that area."  So then came the idea of "Cleaning Cards."  I'm sure it's already thought up and I was slow to join the bandwagon, but here I am!  I guess you can use popsicle sticks too, but I wanted something I could write on for more details.

Anyway, I am excited to laminate them and get started.  I'll need a little "trash" bucket to keep them in.  Perhaps the dollar store will have one.  The best part is that I can sift through ones I don't need and only pass out ones I do need...or give them all out.  I printed some blank ones to add on tasks as needed.  I also added a these cards:

For kids who should not do anything but clean their desk every 5 minutes, but never have time.

Because someone always leaves HW on their desk or leaves it a complete disaster.

To help me/maintenance workers with checking the cleaning of others.

Here is a pdf of the cleaning cards.  The blanks are the last page.  I tried to save the word document via google docs so people could edit, but Word/Google Docs don't always like each other when it comes to keeping things on the same page.  Let me know if you want the Word version to edit.  Cleaning Cards

Oh, and I made a peanut butter and banana sushi roll for my lunch tomorrow.  I saw the idea on Pinterest, which got me here.  My pregnant self has been loving bananas, but can't have sushi, so I thought, why not!  :)  Yum!

Lighting was bad!