Hi Reader,

Have you heard about how children in Japan are resonsible for cleaning their school at the end of the day? Japan is known for being a clean country and I love how Japanese children are being taught to take ownership in their schools. My students have cleaning responsibilties each day, such as putting away items they were using, wiping down our tables, chairs, etc. They surprised me though this past week!

I was reading them the book This is How We Do It: A Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World by Matt Lamothe. This book describes what these seven children eat for breakfast, how they get to school, what they learn and do at school, how they get home, extra-curricular activities, what they eat for dinner, and how they relax at night. One of the countries mentioned is Japan and there is a part in the book that briefly explains how Japanese children wear slippers inside their schools and are responsible for cleaning it at the end of the day.

My students were so impressed at how they wear slippers inside and get to wipe down walls. Yes, I know, if you teach middle schoolers they might not have the same enthusiasm! But this is kindergarten and these 5 and 6 year olds started asking me if they could clean the same way. So at the end of the day, I let them take their shoes off and leave them out in our hallway. Since they didn't have slippers with them they got to be in their socks. Each child received a wipe and they all began wiping down whatever they could find. Several kids took everything off of our shelves and reorganized them. They also swept the floor and then took turns using a Swiffer mop. This was the neatest they have ever left our classroom and it led to a great discussion afterwards about the feeling of pride they had in knowing how hard they worked.

You can see them in action here:

I can see more "deep cleaning" like this in the future...a little imagination in pretending to be in Japan went a long way!

Here's an article about children cleaning their schools in Japan.

Would you let your students pretend to be in Japan and deep clean your classroom? If so, let me know how it goes!

Have a great week!

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