Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Cleaning Desks at the End of the Year

It is the task that we all dread....removing name tags from desks at the end of the school year.
A friend has been hassling me suggesting I try using shaving cream, which I finally did.  And guess what? It worked!  It actually worked better than Goo Gone...and it's less expensive!

I let the shaving cream sit on what was left of the name tag, and after about 15 minutes I used a paint scraper to slide it right off the desk top!
Eazy Peazy, huh?
But PLEASE no one tell her that it worked,  the last thing I need is to hear her say, "I told you so"!


Do you have any tips for cleaning off your desks (or anything else) at the end of the year?


22 comments:

  1. What?! This is fabulous!! Thanks for the good info! :)
    ❤Teri
    A Cupcake for the Teacher

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  2. I was just trying some goo gone today with no luck... this will be tomorrow's project! Thanks!!

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  3. Love it! I did mine yesterday. :-) daisy days for learning.blogspot.com

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  4. What a fantastic idea! I have heard of the students doing the scraping too with wooden rulers. Takes one thing off of the teacher and the kiddos LOVE it!

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  5. Jennifer,
    It is also fun to let the kids do the work with the shaving cream! I just spray it on at each child's spot and let them play in it, write, make shapes... and they don't even realize they are doing the cleaning for me. After, it is easy to just wipe them down with water and a sponge- but that water is filthy! Eww. I always think I keep my tables so clean- but then I see that water! :) Love your blog!
    Carolyn
    Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together

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  6. I use this all the time to clean tables but I let my babies play in it first! They LOVE it!

    Karmen
    Karmens Kinders

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  7. Tried hand sanitizer for the first time this year after seeing it on Pinterest... it worked like a charm! Gave the kiddos spoons so they could scrap off the sticky "goo" left behind. They loved it!

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  8. Tried hand sanitizer for the first time this year after seeing it on Pinterest... it worked like a charm! Gave the kiddos spoons so they could scrap off the sticky "goo" left behind. They loved it!

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  9. I did this today too! 2 weeks ago, I usually save the shaving cream fun for end of year (kindergarten) so after horrible SAT10 torture testing I pulled out this weapon on a rainy no recess day and wa-la it was the "best day EVER" The kids think it's for spelling tests! I put a sight word power point on and they went to town. I realized after that the sticky from an alphabet strip I pulled for testing was cleaning right up. So today I was trying to clean another sticky spot and my kids dropped everything to cheer for a spelling test! HA- they were bummed that I wasn't sharing today. 2 weeks left and I need to buy more shaving cream :)

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  10. Wow- great tips. I'll try the hand sanitizer first, since I have a bunch of containers of it, & move to shaving cream if it doesn't work. Thanks! Carol

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  11. This won't help you for this year, but it sure will save you time for next year! I put two squares of velcro on the desk and name tag. My students can take their name tag to their center as a number chart reference or alphabet chart. I love it and am never going back to taping name tags again! All I needed to do was laminate the name tags before putting on the velcro!

    Hope this helps!

    -The Frizz

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  12. I have my kids peel off their own name tag on the last day of school (they like to take them home), give each one a squirt of shaving cream, and let them play in it until is starts evaporating. Once you wipe the residue off, the goo is gone! And the kids have a blast.
    ❤ Karen
    flamingofab@gmail.com
    Flamingo Fabulous in Second Grade

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  13. Wow, such a neat trick. I'll definitely have to store this away for future use!

    Love to Learn

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  14. This is awesome! If I only knew this sooner! Will definitely try next year!

    Angela
    angelapr18@gmail.com

    The Bilingual Teacher

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  16. Thanks so much for the tip!!! Wow, can't wait to try it. Your classroom looks great.

    Katina
    http://wonderbugs1.blogspot.nl

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  17. This is a great idea! I shared a classroom with other teachers this year so I did not have name tags this year, but after cleaning the desks after school I was already dreading this task next year. I will definitely keep this in mind!

    Jordan
    Sweet Little Things

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  18. About how many things of shaving cream did you get for the desks?

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    Replies
    1. I don't even think I used half of one =) It doesn't take much at all!

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