It's Simply Elementary

Organize · Simplify · Teach

Organization Love :)

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Happy Saturday, friends!  Grab a latte and some chocolate – I’ve got a long winded post for you! 🙂
Yesterday, I finally was able to take in a few newly labeled drawers that I had bought for my daily papers/materials as well as for my monthly center activities that don’t specifically fit  into my Reading Wonders or Math lessons. (those that DO tie specifically to a lesson get filed elsewhere…)
 I posted a picture on Instagram yesterday once I got my drawers set up . . .
I’m loving how they turned out, and I got a lot of questions and comments about what goes where, etc so I thought I’d throw together a little blog post to share with you the ins and outs of how I organize and  file and label (oh my) my teaching materials 🙂
For lack of a better way to organize this post (yes, I need to find a way to organize essentially everything) I’m just going to start from right behind my desk and work my way down the shelves that I use to store most of my teaching materials…
Daily Tray/Drawer materials:
Until, well, yesterday, I’ve used stacking trays to keep my copies for each day of the week in.  Each week’s copies, books, anchor charts, centers, etc. went in their own folder on their corresponding tray, and then UNDER each folder for each day of the week went the copies for the FOLLOWING week.  I always have 2 full weeks of plans/copies done, so that’s how I keep track of my copies for the current week and the week ahead.  Now that I have the drawers, I am still using the folders to hold the current week’s copies and then the upcoming week’s copies still go UNDER the folder, but now they’re just hidden away in drawers – which I kind of love.  Here’s a picture of my newly labeled drawers!
Above my drawers are my “to do” trays.  The top tray is where I lay my papers that I need to either file, make, copy, laminate, etc.  I use the clips below on the papers that I put there so when I get the chance to clear the tray, I know what needs done!
The middle tray of my to-do tray is where I put the fun ol’ stack that needs to be graded.  🙂 DEFINITELY my favorite tray! (or not)
Next to my daily drawers are my mostly used binders.  This is where I keep my printed lesson plans, my sub binder, my standards binders, and a binder for every possible subject you could think of.  When I file away what I use each week/unit, I file it in chronological order making it easy to find and grab next year.
I have a binder for grammar, for writing, for math, for reading groups, for OTES (our teacher evaluation system . . .  you can check out my OTES binder on TPT if you’re an Ohio teacher!), and the list goes ON AND ON.  Some subjects have multiple binders simply because one binder isn’t big enough for a year’s worth of filed math.  Within those binders, too, I file by CCSS – another VERY easy way to organize and find a resource you save to use from year to year.
Next up is where I keep all of my Reading Wonders specific masters/files.
There are 6 units in Wonders, so, naturally, each unit get it’s own binder.  Within the binder, well . . .let me just invite you on into those binders. .  .
 . . I simply tab each week of the unit (there are 5 weeks of skills) and within each week, I start with the cover planning sheet that has the weekly skills and standards.  . . (available for Reading Wonders for grades 1 and 2 in my store!)
Behind each weekly cover sheet I add the weekly plans and then a master copy of every resource that I use for that week’s skills.  OR if I come across a resource that I didn’t quite get to use but know that I want to next year, I add it to the week of skills that it fits!  Additionally, if the resource is for Unit 4 Week 2, I label EVERY RESOURCE 4.2.  SO easy to file and find! 🙂
Then, next year, it’s ALL ready to grab and go! I can add to it or change anything that I see fit, but I won’t be starting from scratch or scrambling to gather resources for my Wonders weekly skills next year!
In addition to my binders, I also have the vocabulary and high frequency words organized by unit and week in expandable files  . . .

 

Each card is labeled with the unit and week for which it corresponds.  I keep all of week 1 words in the 1st flap, all of week 2 words in the next flap, etc. 🙂 Again, all ready to go and organized to find each week and each year!

Reading Wonders also has vocabulary cards and interactive read aloud cards that I have organized in a giant crate.  Each unit is tabbed to keep them each separated and I wanted these (large) cards to be able to be at my finger tips, not tucked away in a drawer…so here they are!

And one of the last organizational tools for my Wonders things is my 5 drawer cart for which I keep my centers and materials by unit.  Each center activity that I make for each week of each unit gets labeled the same way – for a center that I will use during Unit 4 Week 2, I label the center with 4.2 and keep it in my unit 4 drawer…

Annnd the last part of my organizational madness that I’ll share with you today is my monthly themed center drawers.  These are where I keep games/activities that are holiday themed or season specific instead of specific to a particular skill/standard in Reading or Math (I’ll save my math organization for another day!:))

You can grab those labels {HERE FOR FREE} in my TPT store!! 🙂

Ok – that about covers my teaching materials and how I keep things organized and filed at my fingertips from year to year.  Hopefully you found something that might help you with some classroom (or home!) organization!  If you have any questions about how I organize in my classroom, please feel free to comment below or to email me!  Thanks for reading such a long, detailed post! Happy Weekend!

Comments

  3. 3

    Anonymous says

    Hello,

    We recently adopted the reading wonders program. I was wondering how do you make it interesting and interactive? What do your centers look like each week? I would LOVE to make it more hands on! Thank you

  5. 5

    Sheila Zamora says

    I love your page and suggestions! My District is just adopting Wonders ELA 2017 version this year. Is your TPT Wonders packet aligned to 2017 or is it from a previous years Wonders series?

  6. 6

    Kristi says

    I love the ideas you have shared about organizing your Wonders program. How do you manage or organize student materials like the leveled books? Do those go in the unit file too?
    Thanks for sharing what works for you 🙂