Some Organization

Here are some simple and basic ways I organize my classroom. As I'm working in there more I will post how I do centers, lesson plan book, etc. For now here are some basics. 

Each child has their own tub which I label with a laminated cutout (frog or bee) and put their name on it. They keep their markers, unfinished work, spaceman (for writing), number tiles for tiling packets and some of their readers from guided reading. The four white boxes on the top row are extra supplies. If we are in the middle of something and Tyler can't find a pink crayon, he can just go over to the white box and get one. 

Scissors, crayons, pencils, glue. 

Each table has a 'work bucket'. They are filled with glue, scissors and crayons. I don't have these filled yet because I haven't collected supplies from the kids yet. I do community supplies where each table has their own set of supplies. I allow the kids to keep their markers in their tub but other than that we share everything. I've tried doing supplies a few different ways. Because we have tables and not desks, there isn't a good storage place for personal supplies. One year I did let the kids keep their supplies in their tub but it was way too much getting up and down and if someone lost a red crayon I was constantly replacing lost supplies. I also have these skinny orange baskets I call pencil baskets. Each table has their own basket filled with 8 or so pencils.

I'm a little late on the Target posts. Everyone has posted the great deals they got at the Target dollar spot. Here are some simple matching games which I'm keeping in these cute Dr. Seuss bags. I made about 10 of them. I like how I can have the kids grab a game and take it to a quiet area of the room to play. Also good for a center, very portable. I have lots of parent volunteers and this year I  have 4 non-English speaking students. So I will have my parent volunteers use these games to play with some of those students.

Kind of a wonky picture of my room, but I have 4 tables of 4 plus 1 trapezoid shaped table and a round table. One year I had 16 kids which was perfect....4 tables of 4 but this year I'm going to have 22 so I will need the extra tables. 

Post # 50! Some of my favorite teacher things....

Love all of her stuff!

Love Love Love new markers for MY use only!

Same w/ the crayons. I don't share these w/ the kids. 

I have a small bucket filled w/ sharpies of various colors. I love being able to pick one from many to write things ...mostly writing on laminated things.

Love most everything at Lakeshore Learning. But they are expensive!

Cubbies for each of my kids. Very helpful with keeping work, supplies and half finished projects organized.

This aisle at a Target, IKEA, Wal-Mart, Container Store, etc. You get the idea.

Kindergartners love play doh. I use play doh a lot for fine motor work, making letters, numbers and words, etc. 

Any books by Lizzie Rockwell.

Any books by Gail Gibbons.

I love this line of organizational items called "Hot Chocolate". I have notebooks, calendars, binders, etc.

A must to get me through the day!

Bargain Shopping

I got these cute community helper/family finger puppets at IKEA.

These plastic kid sized grocery sacks were on sale at Michael's for $1.00 each. I bought 4 and put them in my kitchen center.

These were 2 for a dollar at Michael's on clearance. They are wooden cookies (not magnetic). I bought four packages.

Seed packets from Drug Mart...10 for a dollar.

I taped some of our high frequency words on the bottom of the wooden cookies for a center this week. The kids will flip over a cookie w/ a spatula and write the word or circle it on a pre-made word search. I haven't decided exactly.

These are ice cube trays for "ice sticks" . You freeze water in them and can fit ice in water bottles. They were taped together, four for a dollar at Dollar Tree. I thought they would make good patterning trays. 

Ok, I have at least two of these and they are expensive. Who knows where they are! My son says they are in storage but where. I have a certificate for 8 butterfly larvae but I can't find the netting house you put them in once they spin their cocoon so I found something else at the Dollar Tree....

A wire trash can (turned upside down). The holes are too small for the butterflies to get out of. As long as I put something underneath, we should be able to release them safely. Plus, I might be able to clean this out a little better than the netted one. Once the Monarch butterflies hatch they have a reddish liquid (looks like blood but it isn't) which is actually what makes their wing color. Next post, "Garden" unit Part 1.

Some Math Organization

Some math organization linked to 

http://pattonspatch.blogspot.com/

Geoboard Work. Always a center, depending on the skill they make numbers, shapes, patterns.

Simple bean game from the beginning of the year. There are sooooo many things you can do with this to adapt it.

I have TONS of printable games. 

Unifix cube center (early in the year) working on counting, adding, subtracting, making patterns.

Same for pattern blocks. This was early in the year when we worked on matching pattern block patterns.

I have TONS of graphs that coincide with the season/theme. Graphing, adding, counting, how many more, how many less, etc.

I have lots of dollar tree sorting items, again, all thematic. Later in the year I have the kids fill out a 'data' sheet based on how they sorted.

This is from the games center. Various games based on theme.

Check out makinglearningfun.com She has tons of printables for math and literacy.

Estimation station. This is almost a daily center. The kids guess how many of a certain item is in the plastic jar and the items are counted out w/ the help of a 100's chart.

Another printable from makinglearningfun.com Roll the dice, add the two numbers together, write it on the reindeer tummy.

From Deanna Jump. I do these whole group or in our math journal.

A Math Their Way game that I adapted for Valentine's.

Little/Big dice game.

Roll 3 dice and put them in order from greatest to least.

Organization for my sorting, counting, patterning supplies.

100's chart work using colored markers. The kids LOVE this.

Some Organization for Literacy Centers

Organization for Literacy Centers.... Linked up with
http://pattonspatch.blogspot.com/

I do a mixture of literacy and math centers most days. Some of these pictures are early in the year. I'm on spring break and not really wanting to go into my classroom to get some of my organizational binders so you'll have to use your imagination. Each month I change out my books in my bookshelf for the kids to read during partner or self-selected reading time. This is just ONE area of the room for the kids to select books. I also have several book baskets of leveled readers.

This is one of my book tubs. Complete with pointers, etc. These books are leveled aa-B for this specific group of readers. 

Literacy Center binder organized by months. I do most of my teaching thematically so it is easier for me to combine everything monthly. 

Small group readers, I think I have six copies of each book leveled aa-L. We are required to do a running record weekly so we know each child's reading level. However, my guided reading groups usually change every 4 weeks. I have A-E in these two baskets because that is where most of my readers are and I can get to these books easily.

This is my all important binder. It has my schedules, (not lesson plans, I do actually use a lesson plan book), anecdotal notes, guided reading levels and list of books/lessons used and checklists galore.

This is from early in the year. I believe in doing homogeneous groups 3 times a week and heterogeneous groups 2 times a week. Mostly literacy is the homogeneous groups and math is more heterogeneous. Notice I have 'green' names on this picture and 'purple' on the one below. I am always a center and that picture is of a reading group. Most of my icons I made myself by using magazines, boardmaker or copied from various workshops. Again, this is from early in the year so the centers for this day were reading groups, dice game, construction, working with words and painting.

This is more geared for math, pattern block work, writing around the room then math game, working with words (penguin theme), sorting and flannelboard.

We have a subscription to readingatoz.com. LOVE IT!! All of the books are leveled and have printable books, lesson extensions, graphic organizers, etc. This picture was taken with one of my reading groups, a Level D reader I believe and after completing my lesson (depending on the goal) we did an extension activity.