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The Organizational Page Staying organized takes a lot of effort, but once you have it down, things run very smoothly! A little effort goes a long way. Each teacher needs to do what works for him or her. Please feel free to use some of these ideas in your own classroom. If you have any questions, please e-mail me. Click on any image to see it enlarged!
Here are some of my organizational tips:
These are my two large cabinets. I house a lot of my teaching manuals and binders in one and general classroom materials in the other. The manuals and binders are organized by subject areas on different shelves. Below you will see how I organize some of my other materials in the large cabinet.
For math, I use a lot of different learning centers. I asked for shoe box donations and covered the boxes with decorated Contact Paper. I store them together on a shelf in my large cabinet. To store all of my different die-cuts, calendar numbers, seasonal cling-ons and more, I put them in labeled manila envelopes and then in labeled magazine holders. I store different arts and crafts items and in small, plastic bins with labels. These bins can be purchased at Wal-Mart.
Here is our classroom Workstation, Math Center and Science Role rotation board. Most of the charts are made with Velcro and poster board. The circle for the Workstation Rotations was made from tracing a large circle and using a computerized circle template put on an overhead. I traced the lines and then used various clip art to fill in each space. Last year I used the circle template on the computer and added clipart and text to the circle on a computer program. Then I took the printout to Fed Ex/Kinkos and blew it up to poster size. Unfortunately, I could not do that in color very cheap, so I did it in black and white and colored it in. This method was even less expensive and I was able to print out most of the clip art in color. Some of the pieces were only in black and white, so I colored those in. Plus, this was less expensive and just the right size for my board.
A closer look at our Workstation Rotations wheel and group charts.
During the second half of the school year, I changed my schedule around and had students visit two workstations during my guided reading group meeting times. This is a sample of the chart I used to organize this rotation.
This is our Science Roles chart and our Math Station Rotation Chart.
On the counter near my desk, I have some storage bins for three of our Workstations and then other materials as well. The drawers come out easily and the students from the specific Workstation are able to take the entire drawer to any location in the classroom.
I use these sturdy bins from Lakeshore Learning to store my books. I separated the books by genre, author, series or subject area. Each bin has a specific colored sticker on the outside. Each book from that bin has the same sticker on the binding. To help secure the sticker onto the book, I covered it with clear Contact Paper. I have three bins in my Classroom Library:
Large picture books are stored on a shelf. The two small blue bins house our classroom Reading Buddies. These are just small stuffed animals or Beanie Babies that I had or were donated to our classroom. Students can have a Reading Buddy during our D.E.A.R. [Drop Everything and Read (and Respond )] time. I have a bean bag chair and six pillows in my Classroom Library as well. My sister helped me make the pillows. On every bin there is a colored sticker. That same sticker is found on the binding of each book from that bin. The stickers are covered with a small piece of clear contact paper to help secure the sticker. This helps our classroom librarian put the books back in the proper bin/place.
I collect some of the students supplies and keep them in these labeled organizational bins from Wal-Mart. I also have bins with extra supplies, such as colored pencils, crayons and markers. The metal rack is a shoe rack that I used to store the bins on. I have a pencil exchange program to help eliminate the excess pencil sharpening during class time. The "Sharpener" sharpens the pencils in the "I Need To Be Sharpened" at the end of the day or in the morning before Fine Arts.
I use the crates to store my Literacy Workstation Folders, Student Work/Portfolios and our class math bags. The math bags have a ruler, calculator, pattern block template, mini-clock and a manila file folder with helpful math information (multiplication table, place value template, hundred number grid).  At the side of my Writing Center table, I have a small organizational rack on wheels with plastic bins. The plastic bins store magnets, alphabet noodles and foam sentence building blocks. These are for our spelling and writing workstation activities.
I saw these items in a catalog and recreated them with the help of my dad. I got wood from a local home improvement store and made some improvements on the original designs. I then painted the listening center and chart rack with gloss paint for easy cleaning. The chart rack has wheels so that it can be easily transported anywhere!
The storage bins house some of our Work Stations and other materials for our classroom. Above the cabinets, I have storage bins for seasonal stuff.
On the counter behind my reading table, I have these colored organizational bins from Lakeshore Learning. I purchased two additional bins for extra materials. Each reading group has its own bin. They have color coded file folders inside that came with the bins. I also have a small book shelf near my reading table with reading supplies, books and more.
At my Writing Corner I have bins with writing and spelling resources. I also have story starters on colored wooden craft sticks. These are kept in soup cans. The soup cans are covered with colored Contact Paper. The cans say: 1) Who? C-Character 2) Did What? P-Plot 3) Where? S-Setting. The students can pick a stick from each can to help them start a story. I have two, three drawer plastic storage bins for various writing resources (sticky notes, story starters, shaped paper, stamps and stickers, envelopes and various types of paper). We have a school wide postal system where students can write letters to other students and teachers within our school. Therefore, I have a lot of stickers and stamps to serve as the student's stamps and letters that they mail.
In the back of my room, I used the magnetic front on the air conditioner to keep track of the status of the class. Students move their magnet number under the writing process step that represents where they are. On the cabinets I have sign-up sheets for Peer and Teacher Conferences.
I have 2 tri-colored bins with math labels to store our math centers. When the students are assigned a center, it is stored in a specific bin. I use Pringles cans to store some of the math games and materials. I asked for donations and then covered the cans with Contact Paper. On the top I put the name of the game and contents.
In my classroom, I rotate sending home Math Bags. In each Math Bag I have a different math game that we have learned in class. I have 7 math bags and send home 6-7 per week. At the end of the rotation, I change the games inside of the math bags. I purchased plain cloth bags from a local arts and crafts store. My sister and I decorated all of the bags.
For the Foss Science Program
In the front of my classroom, under the chalkboard, I have three metal shelving units. Since there can be up to eight groups of four in the Foss Curriculum, I have eight cubbies for each of the groups. Items that will be used are housed in the small blue bins. The four side cubbies have extra materials and each of the three science unit manuals and class set of books. I used pieces of poster board cut and secured together to cover the top of the shelving and help prevent chalkdust from getting on the science materials.
On my Workstation/Math Centers/Science Roles board I have a chart to show which group member has which role during science. Both the roles and the shaped symbols have Velcro on the back so that the roles and symbols can be easily changed. I have 7 different groups for our Ideas and Inventions Unit in Science. Each group's name is based on a famous inventor. In our class, we have Team Franklin, Team Edison, Team Ford, Team Whitney, Team Wright Brothers, Team Bell and Team Deere. I put labels on die-cut light bulbs for this unit and on each member's light bulb there is a shaped symbol that matches the symbols on the role chart. For groups that have only 3 members, each member has either a triangle, square or circle and a star on their light bulbs. They work out covering all of the roles. The light bulbs are placed in the bottom left hand corner of each student's desk with clear contact paper.
Each student in my classroom has a W.O.L.F. Binder. Click here to read more about our W.O.L.F. Binders.
Graphics from www.thistlegirldesigns.com |
Workstations,
Math Centers and Science Role Chart Organization
General
Classroom Organization
Science
Organization
Student
Organization
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