classroom organization tips

1-2-3 Come Get Organized With Me!

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsWell it's already the middle of June and the days are flying by me.  I wish summer would slow down to the pace of those too-long winter days that seem to drag on.  Some of my friends still have a few more days of school, and others have been out a week or more. 

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsSummer doesn't officially start til June 21st, so there's plenty of time left for relaxing, before our brains begin gearing up for back-to-school and we have to undo the cruise-control mode. 

For lack of something else to blog about, I decided to start designing new things for the fall. This is the first of many articles featuring a back to school FREEBIE.

My husband thinks I'm a bit crazy, but by the looks of what teachers have been pinning and downloading this past week, I am certainly NOT alone.  I truly believe that if you have a passion for education, your "teacher hat" never really comes off, and all it takes to get us excited all over again, is to see a school supply display, smell a box of brand new crayons, or find some books and classroom treasures at a garage sale.

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsI was always reinventing the wheel trying to make my classroom decor more inviting, organized and just plain cool! After all, this is our home-away-from home! I absolutely love looking at photographs of teacher's rooms.  If you do too, click on the link to come visit mine.

I think teachers look forward to decorating their classrooms, like children start planning their next Halloween costume on November 1st!  Any hoo, even if you have banned yourself from working on "school stuff" for an appropriate amount of down-time, you can still catch up later on all of the great FREEBIES I will be making and posting through out the summer.

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsThe little ditty I put together today, while a warm summer breeze wafted through my office window, is a cute boo-boo book basket.  (Try saying that 3 times!)

Easy, simple and quick; it will help you on the road to getting organized and hopefully make life a bit easier.  The Dollar Store sells a variety of these plastic baskets in all sorts of colors.  So that things looked less cluttered, I used a primary color theme and tried to have all of my basket styles look the same.  

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsPrint off my signage; mount on construction paper; laminate and you're good to go.  Place the basket in your reading area or classroom library section. 

When students are reading one of your books and discover that it needs some repair work to avoid further damage, have them fill out an Rx form of what's wrong with the book and how you can fix it. They tuck the note on the page that needs repair, so that the end sticks out and then drop the book in the "hospital" basket.  

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsI made up the notes, so that students can get in some extra writing practice, as well as a time saver for me.  No need to figure out what's wrong and where the book needs to be repaired.  If you teach preschool, where children aren't able to write, they simply use the slip of paper as a bookmark for each page that needs fixing.  

Run off a bunch of copies, trim and keep in an envelope.  I taped a Popsicle stick to the back of the envelope and then taped it to the back of the basket, so that it would stick up over the top of the books.  Repairing books is a great job to delegate to a room helper.

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsThere are two signs on a page for easy printing, so why not make one for a fellow teacher or your librarian, as a "Hope you have a great year!" surprise.  If they happen to be your BFF, get them a basket and make up the whole thing for them.  This is also a sweet and inexpensive gift, along with a book, if you're planning on having a student teacher

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsclassroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signsClick on the link to view/download the book hospital basket packet.  Feel free to PIN away. 

I'm off to put on some suntan lotion and play in my garden.  Blessings to you and yours, from me and mine. :-)

classroom organization, classroom tips, classroom management ideas, classroom decorating ideas, book baskets, back to school ideas, book hospital basket, book hospital signs

"A life without love, is like a year without summer." -Unknown

 

A Rainbow Of Organization!

getting organized, organizing your classroom, classroom tips, teaching tips, how to organized your classroom, back to school ideas, decorating your classroom, getting students to be neat, teaching life skills to students, organizing construction paperI LOVE being organized.  I guess it’s the neat freak in me.

One of the things that was always a huge mess and really bugging me was my construction paper.

I’d stack it on the shelf and of course the color I wanted was on the bottom, which caused a tug of war to get it out, and piles often tipped over.

Children could not access it, doing something with scraps was a nightmare, and corners and edges were getting dog-eared and torn.

I had to do something!  My organizing system actually came about because I had to haul all of it back and forth to the place with a huge collection of die cuts.

Every summer I spent 2 entire days cutting out all the adorable little pieces of whatever, that I needed through out the year, for various projects.

getting organized, organizing your classroom, classroom tips, teaching tips, how to organized your classroom, back to school ideas, decorating your classroom, getting students to be neat, teaching life skills to students, organizing construction paperI put the construction paper in 2 plastic files, so I could easily tote them and see at a glance what colors I had.

The first file had the colors of the rainbow. The second, pink, brown, white, buff, black, gray, and multi-speckled.

I separate the colors with green hanging file folders. 

I include the various shades as well, and go from darkest to lightest (i.e. see the shades of blue.)

The hanging files are also perfect for putting large scraps of that same color in.

If I get too many scraps, I put the scraps in a separate crate and fold over a piece of that colored paper into a tab and tape it to the top of the file, so that I know what color is inside the files.

I do the same thing for my colored and fancy printed copy paper.

These files come with lids so you can stack them to save on storage space.

The plastic protects the paper, so no more ripped and dog-eared corners.  The paper doesn't get dusty nor faded either, and  I can see at a glance what colors I need more of.

Another big + is they are portable! When I need construction paper for my students, I simply take out a file and put it where the students can access it.

I explain to them how hard I’ve worked to make this neat and to please help me keep it that way.

We have “Scrap Patrol” to help pick up and put away scraps to teach conservation and responsibility.

I feel teaching life skills and showing students how to be neat and organized is valuable and extremely important.

Children are eager to please, and I praise their efforts.  As long as you make clean up fun and give students an easy system they can work with, you are good to go.

If you don't have these files, but have a lot of plastic crates, they would also work and store easily under a desk. Crates also have the little ledges needed to hang a file folder, and can be stacked.

getting organized, organizing your classroom, classroom tips, teaching tips, how to organized your classroom, back to school ideas, decorating your classroom, getting students to be neat, teaching life skills to students, organizing construction paperDo you have an organizational tip you could share with us?  I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or you can leave a comment here.  Thanks in advance for taking the time to share.

Thank you too, for visiting.  I hope you can pop on over tomorrow for more back to school ideas and teaching tips.

Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

“To teach is to be full of HOPE!” –Larry Cuban