Let's Get Oganized!

I'm back again today to link of with Blog Hoppin' for teacher week!

Today's topic: organization!
I am most definitely one of those people that loves organization. I get ridiculously excited over storage bins & labels - weird, I know! I am a true believer that organization in the classroom absolutely makes the school day run smooth. 

Here are a few of my tried and true tips for classroom organization.

SUBJECT BINS

I try to prep by unit.  I look at the unit as a whole, gather my supplies, and make my copies.  Then all of it gets stored in these bins in order of when they'll be used.  This way I just grab from the top when it's time for that lesson and we're good to go.  

TABLE BUCKETS

My students all share supplies.  Each group has a table bucket (or two) that holds pencils, erasers, and small ziplock containers filled with crayons.  The buckets make it so convenient for having everything they need  right there.  The ziplock containers were a new addition this past year and I loved them!  Each container holds a 24 pack of crayons that two students can easily share.  The containers were durable, lasting the whole year (if only the crayons would too!)  I have students collect the pencils from their table at the end of each day and sharpen them so they are ready to go for the following day.  We also share scissors, glue, and markers, but I tend to prefer to keep those away from the tables until we actually need to use them, you know, less of a distraction. But the necessities, always kept at a fingers reach away.

BUCKETS EVERYWHERE

I have these small galvanized buckets placed all over my room. (They're actually from my wedding 4 years ago - I just modge podged chevron paper on them.)  I use these for corralling my daily supplies.  This bucket holds my Mr. Sketch markers for making charts. I have two on my desk filled with pens and markers for notes and grading. I have another near my white board to hold dry erase markers.  They're all strategically placed near where I would use them so when the time comes I'm not scrambling to find what I need.

So there you go, 3 things that keep my everyday classroom running smooth!