Classroom Organizational Tips for Wed. July 9th~

Today, our focus is on "hanging around the room."

How do you hang things up around your room?

If you have any activities that the children walk around the room, read a task card, and answer the question. A great way to put your cards up and take them down is to use the clips in the pictures below.  I Printed the signs , laminated them, and then hot glued the clips under the numbers. Not one fell off all year!  Yahoo!  Changing the cards was a breeze!  No sticky tack or tape. This was truly a great improvement to my around the room activities. The kids love those stations!

Hanging kid's work with ease and so their work does not get staple holes/rips in them can be challenging depending on the surface you have to use. One way we have found to be terrific for kids and parents are creating these cards pictured below. They are quick and easy to clip up the work, you know right away who did not finish or was absent, each child gets displayed, etc.

We have designed cards for different themes.  We print them, get them ready by adding clothespins and attach the name with a label when we get our class list.  It makes displaying work a breeze!

If you don't like clothespins you can always use binder clips.  They are super durable and look amazing.  We like to hot glue a ribbon through one of the handles.  Then we staple or hot glue the ribbon to the wall.  These have to be one of the best ways to hang your anchor charts.  When a test comes and you have to take down anything with print or cover it.  All you have to do is flip them up from the bottom and clip them.  Once the test is over, just release the bottom and you are done.    

Here are several anchor charts in use during math time!  The ribbon used here is the zebra print.  We love using different ribbons to match our decor or theme.

We hope you liked one or more of these tips.  Join us tomorrow for some more tips on organizing your room!

Happy Organizing!

Karen &Alison

Classroom Organizational Tip of the Day:

Today, our focus is on containers!

Recycling and using things that are around you is a great way to save $$$!

We love reusing containers for storing a variety of materials, for games, for Box Top collection containers, etc.

See the BIG container in the picture below ... Guess what that is going to be & you can win a prize from our store $5.00 or less!

The small round containers are from our Chinese restaurant and are great for small plastic letters.  Each of my kids in Kinder had one and their letter mat.  It was an activity they worked on daily for a little while.

The bottles are FANTASTIC for sensory bottles!!!  So durable!

Have fun collecting those plastics!

Here are some that we have bought:

I love the container I found for my tags!!!  I bought several & just labeled them.  I wish I had bought more.

The stackables are going to have sequins in them sorted and neat!

The large one is going to hold sidewalk chalk in the garage.

Yes, we do buy the typical bins at Walmart and Target, but it is so much fun to find containers at the $1 Store that are cheap and work!

Here are my storage drawers for between the table.  I have 6 with rainbow color labels, one set per table. I love the organization & the easy access for kids!  I also can not stand too much junk in the cubbies!

DO NOT be embarrassed by taking things from the trash :o) You are helping the planet!

Look what said, "Take me home!" this morning while I was taking out the trash ...

OK, that is it for today!!!  Happy Organizing and check back tomorrow for another fun tip or two!

Happy Summer!

Karen & Alison

Monday Made it

Another week has passed and now it is time to link up with Tara from 

We are also going to link this post to Stephanie's Linky, too:

Our Monday Made It is going to be dealing with organization. and we are going to continue with that topic the rest of the week, so check back with us for more organizational tips.

Our first tip is organizing all those tiny pieces for games, learning cards, small puzzles, etc. We find these pencil bags are super easy to organize in.  We LOVE that they can snap into a binder and be organized with ease for future use.  We also LOVE that there is a clear window for a label to be placed on the inside and it does not fall off or get lost.  These are great for kids on trips, too.  They are flat and pack nice!

They are a win-win! 

Our second tip/Made It, is our dice boxes. I know you have seen this all over, but these are FANTASTIC!!!  We made them earlier in the year, but the reason why we are talking about them today is because if you make them ... we suggest you use foam dice. They are not as loud as regular dice. We also suggest you do not hot glue them closed so you can change the number of dice in the container.

When we find the little labels we made, we will share them as a freebie!

We made them so when other teachers borrow them, they know who gets them back :o)

Our third tip is to see if your local Dollar Tree has these bags:

They are more durable than you would think and keep many items in them.  The bottom of the bag expands for more room.  We bought a ton and sorted all of our thematic/subject/etc. and placed them in their own bag.  Then we made labels to go on them and filed them in a large storage tub.  It keeps moisture, dust, etc. out!

I now store all of my Easter eggs in these!

So many possibilities!

When you compare them to these bags @ $13+ each (we have some):

You can't go wrong.  The price is better and the quality is good enough to last a long while!

Check back tomorrow for another tip or two or follow us to see it pop up in your g+!

Happy Blog Hopping!

Karen & Alison

  

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Dollar Store Shopping ~

Do you ever go out shopping looking for one thing and stumble into another?

Yesterday I was on a mission to find my smaller book baskets for my chapter books.  I headed over to Big Lots and I found a few, but still need more!

Here are the ones I found:

Sometimes people ask me: "Why these, why black, why so many?"

Why these?  I like these because of the sizes.  They come in the perfect sizes for my books and shelves.  The price is AMAZING!

Why black?  It matches my room and goes with everything/every theme.  I add plenty of color in other places and my labels pop on them!  I love them!

Why so many? I have a TON of books and I love that I can label these once and never take them off.  I stack the ones I will change out later and they are ready to go.

I can't wait to take a picture of my different libraries and put them on!  I missed all of my books last year when I taught math/science.

I also got my new baskets for my clipboards:

My large clipboards are at school right now and my small ones are waiting to be painted and made cute!

The Dollar Store was right next door so I braved it!

First, I found tons of fun office supplies.  I had to contain myself ...  I only bought a few!  The picture on the left is for my mom's office (24 cute file folders & a note pad to match).

The right is for me, I love post-its!

Next, I found these dividers for $1. These are great in your monitoring notebook for each kid!  I use them and the pockets are great to put in all of those little slips of paper (notes from parents, nurse slips, etc.). I bought enough to go in my CAFE binder!

Then, I found a couple new puzzles for my youngest:

After that, I found my BEST finds of the day!!!

I was super excited!!!

Finally, I went home to clean and work on organization and ...

I hope you have AMAZING finds that you love when you start shopping for your class!

Happy Shopping,

Karen

Happy 4th of July!

Whole Brain Teaching Rules & Response Poster Set

Here is a Whole Brain Teaching set of posters that will be FREE in our store.  Right now they come in two styles, but we may add others!

We wanted to share them with you!

Please head over to our store to grab your set.

While you’re there, please follow us for updates on more freebies and fun products to use in your classroom.  Also, check out some of the other items we have in our store.

Click on the picture below:

We hope you have a great day!

Happy Summer!

Karen & Alison