Classroom Organization

Growing Kinders is hosting a LINKY party!

Organization is one of my LOVES! If I couldn't be a teacher, I would be a professional organizer. Here are a few things that I want to share that might help you to organize your classroom.

Spaces and Places- An awesome book all about organizing your classroom. Debbie Diller has tons of great pictures in this book and lots of awesome ideas about how to use your space.

Lakeshore Organizer- I just had to have this! At the beginning of each week I pack each bucket full of the supplies needed for each day. Everything I need for my day fits into these buckets!

IKEA Buckets- I use these buckets for everything. They are cheap inexpensive. I bought them all for $1.50 but now they are 2 bucks. I take a picture of the contents of the bucket and wow! The materials all end up where they need to be without any question!

Color- I have become a bit OCD when it comes to baskets and bins. I am in the process of replacing many of my bins so that they are all matchy-matchy. Don't you just love the blue!?! I have gotten these most recent blue containers at the Dollar Tree.

Toolboxes- We call these our tool boxes. I ordered them through a teacher catalog. They were pretty expensive but an excellent investment. This is the third year in a row that I have used them and they are still as nice as when I first bought them.

***Update- One of my readers helped to locate these toolboxes. Go to Overstock.com to find them.


You can also find them at Ebay.

Cuteness- To make things cuter, I have recently started using ribbon and scrapbook paper. Check out my cute reading baskets :)

Guided Reading- To prepare for guided reading, I store all of my materials in the same area. I bought these shelves at Sauders Outlet for $5 each! I have a basket for each group and store all of my small group materials below on the shelves (p.s.- notice the blue again).


-Stephanie

Little Helper

I am working on planning my ocean unit. Apparently my dog Sandy wants to help :)

-Stephanie

Rainforest Activities

For the past 2 weeks we have been studying the rainforest and all of the cool animals that live there. We have turned our classroom into a rainforest and have created lots of animals. Here are a few of our projects.

Tree Frog

 The kids colored the frog and then added a tongue with bugs and wrote a math fact on the back.

Cool Crocodiles 

A teacher friend of mine was inspired by Mrs. Jump and created this crocodile. Check out the sharp teeth!

We also made snakes, toucans, and blue morpho butterflies. Here is our rainforest of vines. I bought brown and green fabric from JoAnn's and twisted it to make vines. 

Rainforest Pop-Up Book

The students were all given a piece of green paper that was already cut. They were instructed to write about their favorite rainforest animal. Then, they created a background and their animal to go on the center cut. I then glued all of these pages together to make a class pop-up book.

-Stephanie

Coin Math Centers

Last week our math centers were all money. 

Sorting Money

Students sort money by value. Click here to download Money Mat.

Money Subtraction

Students used pennies as manipulatives for subtraction. 

Roll to 100

Roll and Graph Money

Students roll a dice that has different coins. They graph their roll until one gets to the top. I used coin stickers that I found at the teacher store to make the dice.

-Stephanie

Lucy Calkins Library Pack Giveaway

Michelle, over at Fabulous in first, is having an awesome giveaway! If you use the Lucy Calkins Writing Series, you need to check this out! Even if you don't, hey, it's 10 free books!

-Stephanie

Smitten Mintons Giveaway!

Check out this great giveaway at The Smitten Mintons...a $25 gift card to Target. Who couldn't use that :)

-Stephanie

Valentines Math Centers

Here are our Valentine's math centers...

Heart addition- 

The students used some cute little hearts that I found in the Target dollar spot and added them on a work mat that I made with Ellison hearts.

Valentine Counting Book

Valentine Hearts by 10's

Conversation Heart Graph

We used candy hearts from last year that were hard as rocks. I don't think the students ate one single heart...I promised them they would get sick or maybe break their teeth :)

Weighing Hearts

Another Target Dollar spot find (man, I need to stay out of that place!). I filled up the plastic hearts with various weights. The students then had to balance the hearts with tiles. 

-Stephanie

Awesome Giveaway!!

Okay, Michelle, Over at Fabulous In First is have a super fantastic giveaway! Go check it out if you want to win all of her TPT stuff :)

-Stephanie

Another Round of Literacy Work Stations

I try to change out my literacy work stations frequently. Each station just has a few things that I rotate to keep things novel. Here are some of my most updated stations. 

 Magnet Letter Work Station

 Here the students practice spelling their popcorn words with magnets.

Fine Motor Work Station

The kids spell sight words with tiny letter pasta that they pick up with tweezers.

 

I found these linking pieces at JoAnn Fabrics. The kids love to hook them together at the fine motor station and make necklaces and bracelets.

Making Words Work Station

The kids practice spelling sight words with playdough.

The kids practice spelling sight words with pipe cleaners.

Games and Puzzles Work Station

 

I bought these cards at a teacher store. The kids put them together in a mini pocket chart to build 3 letter words and then they record the words they made.

Name Work Station

 

The kids take a little box of letter tiles and sort letters that are in their name and not in their name.

 

The kids rainbow write their classmates names. They trace over each name 5 times. 

Click here for your copy of Name Rainbow Writing.

Read the Room Work Station

 

The kids go around the room and find words that they know or words that start with the letter on the stick.

-Stephanie

Write the Room Workstation

One of my kiddos favorite literacy work stations is the "Write the Room Station." I found some great printables at Kindergarten Hoppenings. Check it out!

Here is a picture of what we use for the  "Write the Room Station."

 

Click here to download your own copy- 

ABC Write the Room

Enjoy! 

-Stephanie