Organization is my jam. I just love it. I organize... and then re-organize, and then re-organize until I get it right. Because I'm organizationally crazy, you can benefit!
As you are planning to get your classroom ready for next year, here are a few organizational hacks that I just LOVE!
I have tables in my classroom. I tried a bunch of different ways to keep the materials that my kiddos need most often organized. Leave it to Hobby Lobby and those adorable tin cups to solve my organizational woes. They fit perfectly in the heavy duty paper trays I had from Lakeshore Learning. I popped a Velcro dot on the outside, and the numbers correspond to each student's cubby number. Because they are on with Velcro, it's easy to move them when I change up table seats.
Inside each cup my firsties have their three pencils, purple correcting marker, scissors, glue stick, dry erase marker, and white board eraser.
Pencils are always a hassle. I found that taking a few extra minutes to label the pencils with cubby numbers alleviates a lot of issues! Each student has three at a time. When the pencil is dull, they put in the "Not Sharp" cup. I warn my kiddos not to put all three in at a time, because they never know when I'm going to get to sharpening pencils! I change pencils out each month, so students get a fresh set and I can replace any that they have lost.
I got this organization hack from my sister - lingerie bags! She uses them for toys at her house. I found that they are awesome for storing headphones. The cords don't tangle with the other headphone cords. The bags are really durable, despite the fact that they are inexpensive (I got these at Wal-Mart). And, of course, I can throw the bags in the washing machine any time they need to be freshened up!
I LOVE storing my teacher read aloud books in my file cabinet. They are easy to find and they stay dust-free and flat. You can find out more about how exactly I organize within these drawers in the blog post {HERE}.
This is my Word Work area. My teammate Lindsey came up with this stellar idea... drawers for the copies for each Word Work / Work on Writing activity. I had previously been putting them in magazine buckets, which is no where near as awesome as this! On this bookshelf students can also find the other accessories they need for Word Work, including magnetic letters, headphones, and a bunch of smaller items in the purple bucket.
You can find all my Word Work Activities in my TPT Store.
I came up with this brilliant space saver a few years back - file cabinets under the computer table! My students don't use those computers, and they can still reach the iPads when they need to get to them. Storing these under the table has been a HUGE help in keeping my classroom less cluttered.
This year I decided to put a couple more file cabinets out of the way... in my closet! (I might have a slight problem with file cabinets... I have a total of SEVEN in my classroom. Yikes!) It took a bit of shelf jockeying, but it was worth it. I can hide those when I close my curtain!
Copies, copies, everywhere! Not when you use drawers! We have a copy center in our district, so I often get stacks of copies ahead of time. With these drawers, I can hide them away until I need them.
And, of course, MORE plastic drawers. Everything I have in my closets is in a plastic drawer or a plastic bin. This keeps out the dust and grime.
Of course, everything is also labeled, too. This helps me and anyone else that needs to get something from my closets. You can find my {Editable} Classroom Labels in my TPT Store.
I hope you enjoyed a few of my organization hacks. A little bit of organization goes a long way during the school year! How do you organization your classroom space?
