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Classroom Jobs Chart

A printable classroom jobs chart with your own list of roles and a space beside each one for the name. Print it once, write the names in each week, or laminate it and use a dry-wipe pen.

Your own jobsName columnStarter listsPDF · SVG
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Four steps

How to make a classroom jobs chart

  1. 1

    List the jobs

    Aim for one per child, inventing light roles if needed.

  2. 2

    Print once

    The jobs stay the same; only the names change.

  3. 3

    Laminate it

    A dry-wipe pen turns one print into a whole year.

  4. 4

    Rotate weekly

    Long enough to learn the routine, short enough not to be a burden.

One job per child

The temptation is to list the six jobs that genuinely need doing. The better move is to list thirty, even if several are close to ceremonial, because a jobs chart is about belonging rather than labour. A child whose name is not on it has been told, quietly, that the room runs fine without them.

Print once, write weekly

The jobs are stable and the names are not, which is why this prints a ruled column rather than pre-filled names. One print per term, with names written in each Monday, or laminated with a dry-wipe pen for the whole year. Generating a fresh chart every week is the version nobody keeps up.

What jobs are actually for

They will not save you time, at least not for the first month. Teaching a class of six-year-olds to water the plants properly costs considerably more than watering the plants. What they buy is ownership: a room children are responsible for is treated differently from a room they are guests in, and that difference shows up in how it looks at half past three.

Related printables

Classroom labels make the name cards to pin beside each job, the attendance chart and behaviour chart cover the other classroom routines, and the to-do list is the same tool without the name column.

Answers

Frequently asked questions

Ideally one per child, even if some jobs are barely jobs. A chart where only six children have a role tells the other twenty-four that they were not needed, and the point of classroom jobs is belonging rather than labour saved. Inventing a few light roles is better than leaving anyone off.

Weekly works for most classes. Daily rotation means nobody gets good at anything or feels ownership, and monthly means a child stuck with a job they dislike serves a long sentence. A week is long enough to learn the routine and short enough that nothing is a burden.

Because the jobs stay the same and the names change every week. Printing the jobs once and writing the names in, or pinning name cards beside them, means one print per term rather than one per week. Laminating it and using a dry-wipe pen is the version most classrooms end up with.

They do two things reliably: they give children a reason to care about the state of the room, and they hand over small responsibilities that are genuinely theirs. What they do not do is save a teacher time, at least not in the first weeks, since teaching six-year-olds to water plants costs more than watering the plants.

Keep going

All 73 tools →
Classroom Labels & Name TagsnewDesk tents, cubby & supply labelsAttendance ChartnewClass register from your listBehaviour ChartnewYour own classroom expectationsTo-Do List MakernewChecklists with your own items

More classroom printables

Attendance, behaviour and reward charts use the same approach, and classroom labels make the name tags.

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