Clean Up Time or Is It Pick Up and Put Away?

I don’t know about your class, but last year when I asked my group to clean up, they got out the brooms and started sweeping the floor. They also cleared the table by wiping everything to the floor. It was then I decided I needed to be more explicit in my directions. Clean Up Time was quickly renamed Pick Up and Put Away Time. So often, we just assume children know what we mean when we give instructions. This year, I am using the book Max Cleans Up to help teach what I mean about "cleaning up." In this humorous book by Rosemary Wells, Ruby works to pick up toys and put them away, but Max stuffs an assortment of objects, including gooey substances, ants, and a little sand into his pocket. Afterwards, we will discuss where an assortment of our classroom objects belong.We may make cooperative pictures to hang in the room and remind us to put things where they belong. We may even sing a few verses of "Time to put the toys, away, toys, away, toys away. Time to put the toys away. Everybody help." I should probably also take time to teach the meaning of the word everybody. I'm always amazed at the number of children who don't realize I mean them, when I say everyone or everybody. It never fails that after I tell everybody to go, one child will still be sitting there and ask, "Me?" Children can't be expected to behave in a certain way, if we as adults are not clear in our directions.