Supplies, supplies, supplies!

Happy ALMOST Friday! I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday. Our first official contract day was today! Since I spent most of the summer in my classroom setting up, as did the rest of my team. We were able to use this time to plan for the first week- wahoo! It feels so nice to already know what our week will look like next week, materials and all (for the most part!)

Since I spent the majority  of this week prepping materials, I thought I would give you a glimpse into how I choose to organize my supplies and materials for my kiddos! Enjoy (:

First things first... I am starting out the year with groups. I am SO nervous about this as I am usually a rows kind of gal. But I strongly feel that groups are the best. I just get nervous starting out that way- since I am looping and know my kids well, I feel confident that if any year to start in groups- this is it!

Back to material talk...

I purchase ALL the supplies that my kids need for them. The OCD in me does not mind because guess what: you have control over what the folders, notebooks, etc. look like! :)  Yes... I am that obnoxious person at Target sifting through the back to school materials to find a particular color folder. I am also that person that holds up the line while the sweet cashier rings up 30 folders, 30 packs of crayons, 30 notebooks, 30 binders, 30 packs of scissors, numerous boxes of glue sticks.

Since we are in groups, I wanted to do table buckets but I wanted to make sure that students were individually accountable for their materials.

Holy assembly line! :) Each student gets -a box of crayons -a whiteboard marker (black only) -glue stick -eraser -scissors -2 pencils and -1 pink eraser cap -1 yellow highlighter.

Last year as their "Christmas" gift I let them choose between a surprise gift or ALL new materials. Oddly enough, they choose new school supplies- so last year they got new things when they came back from winter break. That will be up to them again this year. This year- I am going to be a bit smarter about it and stock up during B2S sales! Seriously... prices triple when you are trying to find folders half way through the year.
 

Then I put them in these ziploc bags that I get from our district supply store. I am OBSESSED with these bags, they are perfectly sized and they are wicked durable!



This year I made labels and taped them onto the bags.
Two reasons-
 1. I am using a numbering system on re-useable supplies. By March, I will only have half of the kids I started with. Customizing their names on things is too time consuming and wasteful of many materials.
2. You can't pass up an opportunity to add in the classroom decor.


Then I place them in their table group. They will not be aloud to keep them in their desk. This will allow me to make sure that I can always make sure students have the materials they need. Don't you just hate when you think all the kids have glue or scissors and all of a sudden everyone is asking for materials?? I mentioned before that the ziploc bags are durable- but seriously- some kids desk turn into a black hole.... they are not black hole resistant ;).


In their desks I always make sure that we have work folders. These are mainly used as a safe place to keep work that we might still be perfecting. Again- numbers are used on these folders, just in case they move... I can recycle their number and their materials.



Student interactive journals. Each student will get their own journal. I DO customize these as inside will house their precious math thinking, writing, reading thinking, grammar practicing, etc. Stay tuned throughout the year to learn more about how to incorporate note booking in your classroom.




These are our parent communication/home work folders. I send these home each night with their homework and expect them back daily. These are customized with their names just in case they get lost on campus.

Let's chat: How do you organize and store student materials?