zigzag Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 Forum friends I need your wisdom/ideas please. We currently have a group of children who have returned to school with a total lack of respect for our toys/resources. I have never seen anything like it. I see children treading on toys, throwing them and just totally mistreating them. And this is the older children not the younger ones. I have done all the usual things; modelling how to use toys, narrating how to look after them, being shocked, sad and cross when seeing tots mistreated and literally nothing is working and I am at my wits end. I feel like such a failure that I can’t get on top of the problem. We have always taught the children that if something is broken then we need to put it in the bin and that sometimes accident happen and things get broken, this now seems to be an excuse for them! I have never known a group like it and would really appreciate some ideas of what to do next! I’m so frustrated that this is happening and it makes me wonder what happens at home? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie_Brighton Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 We are experiencing exactly the same thing at Nursery...even things which you would say were unbreakable they are managing to break! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 Sign of the times I’m afraid Zigzag. One child told me how “I could buy another one” - after breaking a special resource! Be interested if someone on here has better words of wisdom than I can come up with - usually “that’s made me very cross!!! 😤 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted June 11, 2021 Share Posted June 11, 2021 It isn’t just you zigzag, we have a right unruly bunch at the moment and feel like we’re failing to get on top of it, they don’t treat anything with respect (I have never known so many broken resources), they wind each other up endlessly and use lots of of silly language, no doubt picked up from older siblings or the rubbish they’re allowed to watch on tv but then the younger/immature ones in the cohort hang on it and think it’s funny to keep repeating it, if anyone has ideas on putting a stop to that I’d love to hear them (the ignoring it strategy is definitely not working) 🥺 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted June 11, 2021 Author Share Posted June 11, 2021 Firstly, thank you all for making me realise that it’s not just us that are having these problems as selfish as that sounds! Just wanted to share what I did today! During session the Barbies had been spread over the floor so I walked up to them and very loudly said, “well you are not being looked after, the children don’t want you” and put them in the bin (it was a clean brand new bin) well, you could have heard a pin drop and their mouths needed picking up from the floor. A couple of minutes later one of the older children dropped her jumper on the floor and left it whilst she was dressing up, they are well trained to put jumpers in cubby holes, so I did the same and put it in the bin. I very loudly said that if the children decide to look after the toys then they need to take them out of the bin and put them where they belong. This worked so well, I’m aware that it sounds quite drastic but I needed to do something to shock them and wow it sure worked. This continued into the outside area as well. We will see what happens next week!.... Have a great weekend all. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 Sounds like a plan, sometimes it’s the adults that need teaching in our place they will let a group create a massive mess inside then move outside leaving the next adult in to clear it away with the help of children who didn’t get it all out to start with ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinthinguk Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 We too have noticed a total disregard for resources and also the amount of mess that seems to be created! tidy up times got so bad that we resorted to choosing a set time, free flow stops, doors are shut and saucepans are banged! tidy up time happens at the same time in all rooms both indoors and outside, no sneaking off to the loo's to hide! ( and that is both adults and children lol) all staff and children tidy no matter what area they are in, and when they have finished in one space they go to help in another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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