How do you organize and rotate classroom jobs? I love classroom organization ideas and there are so many different ways to do every little thing so today I want to talk about ways to organize classroom jobs so that it saves you a bunch of work rather than creates it.
If not organized well, classroom jobs can be stressful! Did I switch the job chart? Hasn’t Aiden already been line leader twice? How do I add in my new kid?
There are many different ways to organize classroom jobs so you just have to find the way that works for you and your style of classroom management! I included affiliate links (it’s no extra cost to you but I get commission if you make a purchase through the link) in this post to some fun pocket charts and bulletin board sets on Amazon to help make organizing classroom jobs easier!
My personal favorite way is for every single student to have a job every single day.
Here are some different ways you can implement classroom jobs.
1. Every kid has a job. Here’s a huge list of classroom jobs. You can change weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly OR train kids to do the jobs long term and switch every quarter or so. They get really good at their jobs this way and you can have kids do their specialty! You could still change the line leader each day/week by just going in alphabetical or number order down your list since that’s such a coveted job. If you do that, just have the “substitute” job do whatever kid is line leader that day.
2. You pick a STAR helper or VIP of the day who does everything you need. This is really easy to do. Just go in ABC or number order down your list so it’s easy to know who’s next.
3. You pick a boy helper and girl helper each day/week to help with everything. You could put all your girls’ names on cards, punch a hole in the corners, and use a binder ring to connect them. Do the same for boys. Each day/week, flip to a new girl card and a new boy card.
4. Have table captains who manage each table. They make sure their table is clean, organized, and quiet. They also get supplies for their table.
5. You can have students apply for their jobs if they’ll take awhile to do them. Have them write their top 3 choices, each with a reason why they would be good at it. You’ll get super cute “because I am strong” answers for the door holder and other cute/funny responses. You can treat it like a real job where they get paid each week for doing their job in whatever your classroom currency is and use it to buy free time, class store items, choice in their Fun Friday activity, etc. This way, you can also “fire” someone for not doing their job correctly to make it an authentic experience. I don’t recommend firing anyone if you can help it but let them know it’s a possibility. 🙂
6. Have library pockets and each kids’ name on a jumbo colored popsicle stick. Having it be a certain color makes it quick and easy for them to find themselves each time you change it. Write the name of a job on the front of each library pocket on the wall. Simply put each kids’ popsicle stick in the library pocket that is their job. You can also do this with a pocket chart.
7. If you don’t have a job for every student, when students don’t have a job, you can say they’re “on vacation” – they think it’s funny and it makes them forget about any “unfair” talk about not having a job. 🙂
8. If you have a classroom currency like tickets, tags, poms, whatever – you can have students save up their poms to pick their job for the next week on Fridays. Let’s say you do tickets. Give them out during the week for good behavior you catch, for turning work/homework, working hard in small groups, etc. During your Fun Friday, have your students count up their tickets. Whoever has the most can pick their job for the next week first. Whoever has the second most can pick 2nd… and so on. You can also have them go to Fun Friday right after they pick their job so not only do they get to pick the job they want for the next week but they also get first dibs on the activity/center they want during Fun Friday in order of how many tickets they have. HUGE motivator during the week to behave and get work done when you get so many perks at the end of the week for having a lot of tickets!
9. You could also make jobs a prize in your prize box. Don’t waste your money on treasure box items. I highly recommend that your “treasure box” be a box full of FREE classroom rewards that students can buy like “switch seats” or “10 minutes of computer time.” JOBS can be a prize too! Let them buy the job of line leader for 20 tickets for example. Make sure you always have the same amount of time between prize box selection though (like once a week or every 2 weeks) so that if they buy a job, they get the same amount of time as someone else that has bought it.
10. For preschool, kindergarten, and first grade – I recommend having a picture to go along with each job title on your job chart so they know right away who has what job. There are some cute pocket charts with pictures like this Helping Hands Pocket Chart to organize classroom jobs.
This is also a really simple Class Jobs Pocket Chart:
They also make bulletin board classroom job sets you can put directly on your wall:
11. When you switch your jobs, have a quick training session where the person currently holding the job trains the new person. They’re awesome little teachers! It’s great for teaching them leadership and speaking/listening skills.
12. If you don’t want to have 24 different jobs, you could make it easier to manage by having 12 jobs and having an A.M. helper and P.M. helper for each job. This is actually nice for those popular jobs so more people get turns quicker. This set pictured below is a SUPER cute bulletin board set for that if you want to have 2 kids to a job or switch between A.M./P.M.
There are 2 spots for each job so simply have the top spot person do the job in the morning and the bottom spot person do the job in the afternoon. I adhered Velcro Dots to the back of the rectangular name cards and onto the front of the job cards so that they stuck on and could be switched out easily. It’s a really cute display and the company that makes them has a ton of other classroom decor items that match it like borders and posters.
I hope this post was helpful for you!
Don’t forget to check out this giant list of classroom jobs for ideas!
How do you organize your classroom jobs? I’d love to hear!
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