Organizing the Classroom

There are many things you can do at the beginning of the school year, that will keep your classroom better organized. Students will be bringing in supplies at the beginning of the year. Have labeled bins out for them to place their supplies in right away, as they enter the room. If you plan on having them use their own items, then have some Sharpie pens there for them to use to write their names on their items. Once filled, these bins can be easily stored on shelves or in closets until the items are needed. This simple idea will help keep students' desks tidier, and will prevent these items from being lost throughout the school year.

if you choose to organize your desks into groups, handy bins can be utilized for materials that are used on a daily basis. Bins with dividers in them, help to keep multiple items within easy reach. Things such as scissors, glue sticks, pencils, and highlighters are ready for use with this simple idea.

Deciding what students will keep in their desks is important. Textbooks, binders, and pencil boxes are often all hard to fit inside a school desk compartment. Prepare to use shelves for textbooks that may not be used on a daily basis. You may want to store labeled packets of looseleaf paper in a bin on a shelf or in a closet, if you have one.

Use see-through storage containers, made of clear plastic, or mesh, so that you can easily see what is being stored. From small items such as paperclips, math manipulatives, or highlighters, clear visiblity will make finding them a breeze.

Keep markers, highlighters, colored pencils, crayons, red or blue ink pens (used for student editing) separated. This way, these items can be pulled out independently of the other items, keeping everything organized that is not needed.

Tall bins with multiple drawers make excellent paper storage. Simply label each drawer using a system that works for you. Store papers by subject area, day of the week, or month, You may want drawers for extra papers, student's work when students are absent, and holiday related materials.

Several small items need to be within easy reach all year long. Using a storage container with multiple small clear drawers will solve this problem. Store paperclips, tacks, staples, labels, stickers, bandaids, post-it notes, tape, white-out, batteries, stapler removers, and any other small item you can think of that you may need to get to quickly.

If you have a closet door in your classroom, hang a clear-pocketed shoe storage attachment on the door. These are great for items you will not need on a daily basis, such as masking tape, staplers, erasers, packs of pens or pencils, markers, and crayons.

Large plastic storage bins are great to use at the end of the school year. Most schools require teachers to pack up everything, except furniture, leaving an almost empty room at the end of each year. Large bins can be loaded with books from the classroom library, science materials, teacher instructional guides, and practically anything else that needs to be put away. These bins can be quickly labeled and stacked, organized, and ready for next year. Another plus, is that there is no rush to unpack them, as they look nice, and can be conveniently pushed into a corner, until ready to be tackled.