Resolutions: Organization

I’m linking up today with Hope at Second Grade Shenanigans for my new years resolutions for organization!  Be sure to stop by her blog for a chance to win some awesome prizes and to link up with your post about your organizational resolutions!

I love and hate to organize. If I had time, I think I could organize more, but in the course of a day, week, month, year the piles start to add up.  Anyone with me? My classroom is neat and organized at the beginning of the day, but by the end…..wow.  I usually have time to pick up, but every so often I need to stay late and just pick.things.up.

So, here are a few pics of how I organize some things in my classroom:

I store my centers in this fabulous containers.  I love them SO much.

I store my books in these containers:

and I store my posters in these nifty organizers:

These projects were a huge organizational feat for me last year.  It took a LOT of time, but I am so happy with the results.  I know where everything is, and it is quick and easy to put them away.

I love my little landing station.  But, I will admit it does get cluttered by the end of the day because it’s right by the door. 

The green drawers house my math and literacy centers.  I keep track of my bus riders with the clothes pins (each bus number has a different color), and I stick notes from parents on the bulletin board.  I use my little supply caddy for scissors, pencils, pens, lotion, and hand sanitizer.

 

This year, I want to tackle THIS:

I’m trying to toss old things as the year goes on, but there is that nagging voice in my head that says “keep it…you might need it again.” *sigh*  I KNOW I won’t need it again, and I’ll just re-make it if I do, but…..what if??

I also want to organize play lists in my iTunes for each month.  I have quite a few already, but I want to have my songs organized for each skill – rhyming, syllables, counting, etc.

This is an older picture of my classroom, and I’ve changed it a bit, AND it is QUITE messy in this picture, but you can see said cabinets above!

And my cabinets, oh, my cabinets.  I don’t have doors on my cabinets, so I use curtains.  I MUST go through these cabinets and TOSS. Again.

I also need to get in the habit of using this:

I carry it back and forth to school every day, but it rarely comes out of my bag. So sad. :(  My family uses google calendar to keep track of all of our appointments and classes, and it’s just so easy to pull up the calendar on my phone.  I resolve to use this MORE for school appointments!

A lovely blog reader also left a comment and told me about this cool site:

I already create my lesson plans on my computer, so maybe I’ll give this a whirl!

I’m working on organizing all of my word/letter/sound sorts, and I LOVE this idea from the Sweet Life of Third Grade.

I really LOVE this idea too!

This brilliant idea for sticker organization is from Kinder Craze.  Isn’t it is SO smart!

What are your resolutions for organizing?  Be sure to stop by Second Grade Shenanigans for a chance to win some great prizes and read about many other ideas for organizing!

Organization– Posters and Other Big Things

I always had a hard time figuring out a way to store my big posters.   Most teachers in my building take 2 big pieces of tagboard, staple around three edges and then tape over the staples.  That’s what I did for years, but I hated it.  The posters would always rip, stuff would always fall out.  So let me tell you that I was THRILLED when I found this on Amazon. 

They are called the deluxe bulletin board storage pockets. They are awesome!  They are a little more expensive, but I think they are totally worth it!  I used this link to purchase them, and they were a little bit cheaper.

I still need a couple more, but I tried to sort out my posters by month.  I put all of my posters, bulletin board pieces, games, etc. into each pocket.  I love that they are clear and have handles!

Do you have an ingenious way to store your bulletin board pieces and posters? Share!

Book Organization

First, sorry about all the hullabaloo on my background paper – I know it’s wonky! We’re working on a fix!

Last week, I showed you how I organized my center materials. Today, I am going to show you how I organize my books! It certainly isn’t anything spectacular, but it works for me!

Like, I said, nothing spectacular! I just use regular old bin and throw the theme books in there. 

I know books are a challenge figuring out how to organize them.  We all have too many, and space is always limited! I have a tiny room, but I am lucky enough to have a little storage room to store some of these things.  If I didn’t have a storage room, all of these tubs would either be on top of cabinets or at home in my garage!

I would love to hear how you manage and organize your books.  Like up below with a blog post you have written about how you organize your classroom books.  If you don’t have a blog, just leave a comment!

Center Storage and Organization

I’ve tried a couple of different ways to organize my centers and game pieces, but I think I’ve found something that works.  It’s been a year-long process, but I am totally happy with the results!

I use these storage containers that I purchased at Target.  I have seen them in the Really Good Stuff catalog as well.  They are kind of spendy – about $4-5 each, but I thought the investment was worth it. And, like I said, I’ve purchased through out the past year, so it didn’t FEEL like I was spending so much!

I put each unit into one container – sometimes I am able to fit more than one.  Both math and literacy centers go into the container.

I keep everything that I might need for that week’s centers in the container.  Center cards, dice inserts, manipulatives, master copies, and answer keys.  I also keep the black line master’s in a file folder in my filing cabinet, but I wanted to have a copy here as well – just in case!

I either clip the pieces together or put everything in a zip top bag.

What works best for you for organizing your center supplies?

Teacher Talk Tuesday–Advice

Today’s theme is advice for new teachers, but I think this tip might help others too!  

We have a lot of turnover at my school – the military base sees children come and go throughout the year.  Last spring, we gained 12 kindergarteners from January to May! CRAZY! 

As I label things I made 5 additional piles.   I continually add to the pile as I work: lucky duck sticks, birthday flower, apple for lunch choice, helper stick, clothespin – anything that I would need to label.  I did the same when I was putting together my open house folder.

I put all the papers inside a file folder (with a checklist for parents!) and all of the little pieces in a baggie. I tried to color code all of the papers to make it easier on parents.

I tucked everything inside of a poly folder.

When a new student walks through the door, I can grab a file and a baggie, and I’m good to go! 

*I also type up a WHOLE page of labels for each child – first name, first and last name, (small font and large font), name and lunch number, address, etc. – anything that I could possibly need!)

I hope this tip helps all of the newbies out there!  Doing a little extra work now will definitely save you time when that new student walks in your room!