the issue in the toddler's room

[didadi]

Hi everyone:
In the toddler's room, throwing toys is a big issue. we always try to encourage children to pick them up if they throw them. but it is just not working, staff in the room always say to the children:" ## child, you need to pick them up." then that is it, they never follow up but just walk away. and I know with 2-3years old, throwing always a fun thing for them. but what do you usually do in your room? I've found we just constantly pick up and set up all the time in the room. would like any suggestion, please?
Thanks

[fchaudari76]

firstly i find children tend to throw and mess around with the toys if they have too many
when I am faced with a child throwing toys I say "lets go pick it up and put it back" and go with them
also reinforce with "you can break it if you throw it" or "if you hit your friend with it they could get hurt"
you just need to keep at it.
Make picking up toys a game getting all the children involved in picking things up and putting them back.
"who can put all the cars away the fastest?"
"i don't know where these blocks go? do you know?" etc

[didadi]

Thanks fefe, definitely going to use the games and make that like a fun thing to do. we have pack up time, but I really feel most of time in the toddler room is a mess. After set up 2 minutes, everything is going to be messy again. some staff even can't be borther to ask children to pick up, because there are always few children refuse to do so with encouragement. I've found it is really hard for this issue, and more and more stressful in the room. we have been told to keep the room tidy all the time. we really think it is impossible in this age group, so the staff just say: ok, let us to pick up all the time and make sure the room is neat . fefe: are you working in the toddler room? what's your strategy for keeping room neat? do you have any more suggestion could give to me?
Thanks

[fchaudari76]

I am now a director but my previous 2 jobs were in the toddler age group
I adopted my Montessori approach and taught them to put things back once finished with them. Everything was on trays or manageable sized baskets and if they were sharing toys they packed up what they were using and allowed to move on.

Unfortunately you cannot allow your staff to be complacent and just give up because "oh they don't do it" ... when they refuse and see you doing it of course they won't .... toddlers are extremely clever. If you don't pack away you cannot do something else... if we do not tidy our room we cannot go out and play.

Clear rules
Clear limits
Reinforce reinforce reinforce

I had a room full of toddlers who could not even sit down for 2 minutes for circle time.... within 2 weeks they could sit for up to 10 mins and within a month they were packing up after themselves, making each other tidy up etc

[cathiek]

I agree with fefe. I always say to my kindy kids (3/4 yrs) that we all like to play so we all must help pack away. I discuss the consequences of throwing toys, hurting others or breaking toys. If a toy is thrown that child is not able to play with it again till they can show care with the other toys. Giving lots. Of praise for the children who are doing the right thing can help too

[fchaudari76]

They will pick it up when they realise doing the wrong thing gets them nothing and seeing the children doing the right thing getting praised and allowed to move on to new fun activities will spur them on.

Until my children sat properly they were not allowed to go wash their hands & sit down for lunch or line up to go out etc. They soon learnt that messing around and throwing tantrums and screaming got them no where and no attention was paid to them however when they did the right thing good things came their way

[didadi]

sounds great to me, but our centre is private center and the director is the owner. she got one rule, no cries in any room, otherwise the staff will get trouble, if one child cry in the room, there must be one staff sit next to child to comfort that child, and if we ask child to pick up the toys, but that child doesnt want to, we can not be insist to do so, we have to make children happy that she said, no stress in the room. there is one time the staff made a rule, but it didnt work out, director said to her, her action of setting the rules in the room and made children not enjoy the day in the centre, it is sort of against the code of ethics,even gave the written warning. OMG. I really felt she is spoiling all these children and make our work so hard. I will praise and encourage, but it is getting hard. thanks for your advices.

[Lorina]

While working in the toddlers room during group time I did a lot of role playing which I believe helped the children understand what I expected from them. Since I had different children on different days I will do the same role play for a period of a week. For example: If I children throwing toys...

Me: Do you all like playing with the toys
children: Yes
Me: Then why do some of you throw them, that's not a nice thing to do
child 1: I don't throw them
child 2: Jack throws them
Me: When you throw them it shows me that you don't want to play with them, if you don't want to play then I can pack them away and you won't have to play with anything at all.
Children: no, we want to play
Me: so if we see our friend throw the toys what should we do
child 1: say stop
child 2: tell teacher
child 3: pick it up
me: that's right, it's also not safe to leave toys all over the floor because we can fall over. So let's stop throwing toys and put them back when finished.

Then I will pick up a soft toy and throw it across the room the children will then ask me to pick it up and say stop etc... lol... Throughout the week I will reinforce this during group time and during play when I see a child packing away I will make a big deal out of it...

Anyways that's my approach... I use group time to discuss with the children what needs to be changed, not all the time just when I notice something that needs to be improved and it helps the children understand when we discuss it as a whole.

Hope this helps,

,
L.A

[didadi]

Hi,LA. I love your approach. I am going to use it in my room. I can't wait to see their reaction.
I feel it will work in my room:)