DIY Shelf

A couple of weeks ago, Clutter Free Classroom challenged me to clean up and organize my small group area.  I had mentioned that I was going to be building a shelf to put in that area.  The day has come where it is not only done, but been through day one of use!

I love it!

Found some shelves
at Shopko on Clearance!
Made the shelf from press
board.

This is my  small group time work area.  I have the
students sit at table 1 (left) and I sit on the end
at the bottom of this photo. all the supplies I need are
now here, and the papers I use for the day are stored
 on top rather than sporadically around the
room because I had no surface area. I used this today
and it ran SO efficiently!  I love it!

Clutter Free Classroom #8

If you are just joining or want to see what the "Clutter Free Classroom Project 2013 is all about, click on the image above.

Challenge #8: Organize your group area.

Being a play based classroom, there is not a lot of work that needs to be done at a desk.

That being said, I do have a circle time area in which I do much of my instruction.

The carpet is front of this chair. I sit in the
chair while doing circle times.  I have the
read aloud books in the file cabinet on
the right.  I use the white board to
write and show students how to write.

I sit in my chair while doing
circle time.  I have my posters
that help students be ready:
"Are you ready"
with the photos and words of center
time expectations. 

My calendar time is also my circle time
and my work area.  I keep the supplies for
calendar in those "bubbles" I got from Walgreens
(see post)

As for where I do my small group work when I pull the students out for play, I have been thinking about it, and begging my husband to take my shopping for what I would love to do.  I want to have a shelf close to my area with the supplies we use daily (scissors, crayons, colored pencils, etc) with in reach rather than always having to get them out of the art closet.

I also plan on getting a projector in my room soon and would need a shelf that would be the proper height and in width to hold the projector and the computer.  I thought this shelf I had in mind would do both jobs since where I do small group is right in front of the white board.....

I have been thinking about this, planning, and figuring since I saw the post last week.

That being said, I went shopping and found the shelf of my dreams at a price far from ideal.  I was going to splurge, but I gave up using my credit card for lent and did not have the money in my bank account today.  So, I call my mom semi-venting about the situation.  My mom says to me, "Why don't you just make one with all that wood you have in the garage?"  The wood she got for free when Walgreens re-did their back storage room and was throwing it out so she took it and put it in our garage......ANYWAY, that is what we decided to do.

We went into Menards bought screws, foam brushes, and "L" brackets.  We set to work:

My loving husband helping out, but not loving this.  If you can see, there are INCHES of snow on the ground.  It snowed 3 inches last night.....the 15th/16th of March and we have inches of snow!  So sick of winter! but I digress....

We drew out plans, measured, cut, hammered, nailed, screwed, and glued.  We then brought it inside.  It leans.  I am not sure why, we have nails, screws, and glue holding it together, but it still wobbles.  This means, it needs a back.  I am on a search of light weight wood to put on the back.

Tomorrow comes paint. I am just going to do a simple white I already have lying around the house.

***Update: 4/3/13***
The shelf is officially painted white and in my room!  Love it!

Found some shelves
at Shopko on Clearance!
Made the shelf from press
board.

This is my  small group time work area.  I have the
students sit at table 1 (left) and I sit on the end
at the bottom of this photo. all the supplies I need are
now here, and the papers I use for the day are stored
 on top rather than sporadically around the
room because I had no surface area. I used this today
and it ran SO efficiently!  I love it!

Clutter Free Classroom #7

 If you have not started yet, please check out the Clutter Free Classroom Blog (by clicking image above).  

This weeks job: Manage incoming paperwork. 

As she mentions in her blog: The paperwork just. keeps. coming.

I communicate with parents via email, my website, and my blog.  When parents do write notes, they write them in the student's folders.  As a school supply, we have parents bring folders with the metal tabs in the middle. We then whole punch some paper and put it in between.  This way, we can keep a running journal, parents always have the paper, and they can check back daily.

When I go to staff meetings for the school district, I bring my teacher binder with me.  In it, I have a three whole punch. I punch the information I need and put it in the correct tab.  I recycle what I dont need right away.

Weekly newsletters to parents and to staff comes to us via email.  I do not print unless I have to, and if I have to I immediately punch it and put it in the binder.

When I have extras that can be saved for next year, I put it in it's theme folder in my file cabinet.  I only have one drawer of this.  It is not an abundant area, but when I spend time cutting and laminating, I save it for next year in this drawer.  I keep as much digital as I can.  I have MANY files digital sorted in the same manner as these for next year printables.

I have the stacking drawers that have a shelf for scholastic (a big paper source), my sub binder, an extra's pile for those early finishers, and a file shelf (for if I dont have time to put the items in their files in the cabinet. 

When students finish their work, the put it in "the high five basket"  The high five basket is a paper catcher I got from the dollar spot at target that has hand prints on it.  Somehow, it got a name as high five basket and it stuck.

If they need do do more work on the item, the put it in the blue basket.

Anyway, I take the work from the basket and put it where it goes next: Alphabet books, home, or grade.  If it needs to be hung on the wall, I post-it note the pile and put it in the aide's baseket.

If RSVPs come for our many school sponsored events, these go in the RSVP drawer to tally later.  They are recycled after the event has finished.

If I need to make copies, it goes in the copy drawer. The drawers are removable, so I can take the whole drawer with me when I go to make my copies.

Clutter Free 2013 (week 7 Catch up)

This weeks job was to catch up!  It was nice to feel on top of things for once rather than like I was trying to keep up with the projects.  

I spent the "catch up week" labeling my recycled "bubbles" I use to organize a variety of materials.  See Post.  My shelves look less cluttered and this eliminates the problem with having containers match and being the right color.  They are clear so students can see what is inside and they fit well on the shelves. I chose labels that fit what is in the bins, but when they change seasonally, students still know what to put in there.

I got my scrapbook wall art board done!  I made a checkerboard pattern of the scrapbook paper, with each child's name on the top left and bottom right corners of the paper.  I put two students to a square because I have so many students, but when picking which students to put together I put students I typically get art from and students I don't typically get art from together.  Students give me work and they can choose if the work they like is one they want to replace the one on the board or not. If they replace it, the old one goes into my "love book" (a binder with page protectors to put students work in--another great idea from Clutter Free Classroom).  If they like their old one better, I put the new one in the love book.  It is filling up quick and looks great, but keeps them organized and helps them make choices as well.

I am so excited my Thirty-One bag came in!  I ordered the organizational tote and the file holder. The file folder holds the hanging folders and the file holder fits right in the bag!  It has made a great bag for conferences with my assessment binder in there and all student files with me. It looks much more attractive sitting next to me at conference time than a stack of files.  I can pull the file holder out for storage and continue to use the bag.  I love having the flat bottom on the bag!

I had conferences this week and then we had a snow day on Friday which was a no school day but a conference day. Now I have to make up conferences on my own time, but I digress.  I came up with a very cool system for my conferences.  I stand a non-lined note card up so it is taller than wide.  I whole punch the card with 2 holes on the left hand side. The student's name goes on top, meeting date and time on the bottom.  I put them in my assessment binder in chronological order, and then I put a post it note on the card that NEXT.  The post it note covers up the data for the next student so when I give the conference there is no privacy problems.  It also marks where I am so I can pull the tab when referring back to the card.  The cards have a bullet point for strength, weakness, strength.  I put any notes at the bottom.  I found the system to be very successful, efficient, and quick.  If you need a better explanation, please let me know!  I love being able to help and share ideas that work (and don't).

I have been making sure to leave my desk clean at night and do a clean sweep of surfaces at night when I can.  I love having someone tell me ideas that help make me an organized, more efficient teacher.  If you haven't started, now is the time!  Make your Classroom Clutter Free in 2013!

Recycled Items

Almost every day, puts up ideas of how to organized one's room.  She often shows ways to recycle items to use in your classroom.   If you don't read her blog, you should!  Soo many great ideas and ways to help you feel more organized (and at least for me, feel more competent in the classroom).

My mother works at Walgreens in the front end.  Their products come in those plastic "bubbles" for small items in such as lighters, highlighters, chapstick, etc.  Most come with tops too.  Well, it turns out, they just throw them away when they are empty!  My mom had to idea to save them for my room and they are AWESOME!  I use them in my art center, puzzles and games center, and my personal organization.

My mission this summer is to remove all the labels that come on them, and then label them, but they are working sufficiently for now!

holding teacher supplies

Holding class games (created and laminated from many of the free printables and  preschool packs I find)

Holding art supplies

They have many, many of these at back to school time because that is what they keep the small highlighters, and such in.  Ask for them or ask them to save them!  You will not be disappointed!

Clutter Free Room #6

 Challenge #6 "Organize your Teacher Resources"

This week is to organize the materials, specifically the teacher guides and school purchased curriculum. In cleaning up my work space If found that I did this pretty well.  

My material is not "really" in kids sight as I have all the material that is not kid friendly either out of site or behind my desk.  This is basically my under the stairs storage and/or binders.  

My textbooks live under my stairs, bottom shelf, and all in the left hand basket.
School purchased ones on the right, self purchased ones in the same crate on the left.

Craft ideas and such are also in these books, on this bottom shelf. They are on the right hand side of the basket as well.  

The mimio's box and user guides are all together on the bottom shelf right hand side of the right hand basket.  If  I need the mimio or the directions for it, I simply look there.

On the top shelf, right hand crate, I have my binders.  White (extra for now), Blue is for bulletin boards.  This binder includes pictures of boards, materials used, and even font/cricut letters used and size.  Purple binder (not pictured, already in my bag to go home tonight) is my assessment binder.  Yellow (extra for now).  The pink binder is my birthdays and calendar binder.

Purple assessment binder.   In this binder I keep all my checklist observational assessment forms.  Each student has one and they are in alphabetical order.  I used tabs made form post it notes for each child's name.  Observational Assessment form, available TpT.  I also keep a simple checklist to make sure I get to everyone.  In the back, I keep my abc reading chart, colors chart, etc.  That I need to show students in a formal assessment.

Pink calendar/birthday binder.  This binder is 12 binder tabs and 12 page protectors.  At the beginning of the year, I make out all my birthday cards/badges, and put them in the correct tab in it's page protector.  The front page is a list of birthdays.  If they are summer birthdays, it indicates what month the child's birthday is celebrated and materials held.

 I also put the calendar numbers and month title in the page protector. Each month, I am ready for the birthdays and calendars.

My Teacher Binder is in my bag at all times.  It contains student info, standards, calendars, meeting info, etc.

My Substitute Teacher Binder is on the shelves to the right of the chair on the shelves.  This contains emergency procedures, lesson plans, transportation information, and procedure lists.

My file cabinet is where I keep all of my thematic information.  Each season/month has a hanging folder.  Each theme has a manilla folder. I put originals, extras, and games such as bingo in these folders.

Each letter of the week has it's own folder as well.  The folders contain: My printable alphabet book pages for that letter, the  handwriting sheet for this letter, and the cricut cut letters to hang on the board.

Any other professional development, curriculum, and data the school gives me, I put in the file cabinet  in a labeled folder.  The folders are in the hanging folders according to category.

For my weekly organization, I have drawers.  I love my plastic drawers.  I have weekly materials.  These drawers are behind my desk and students do not go into them.  The labels on the front keep me organized and hide the clutter behind.  The black drawers are shorter and work great for when you have less of certain materials (like RSVPs, an assignment to grade, etc).

Finally, for thematic materials (everything from thematic books for the book shelves, thematic games/centers, and decorations) are kept out of student's eyes as well.  I have a closet that is organized by these themes in basic chronological order.  I have book boxes laid backwards with their label on the "bottom."   I then put a small, covered, plastic shoe box with the materials in them under the books.  For decorations, I have very large poster boxes (so posters don't need to be folded) on top of these shelves in my closet.

Clutter Free Classroom #5

***I don't have class on Fridays, but put in a few hours of work time.  Today I went in to clean my desk and finish up step 5 of your challenge.  I left at 2pm. I just (at 4:30) got a text from my principal....the janitor commented to her how clean my desk was!  Wow, the work is paying off!

Step #5 "Create a clutter-free organized workspace for yourself."

I started with switching the sides of my drawers....I originally had all my personal items (meds, emergency snacks, etc) on my right hand side.  I did this because this is the side furthest away from the kids.  Unfortunately, these are the bigger drawers, and they are under the pull out table top I have my laptop stored on and the access to these drawers is limited.  (My class is the only one that still has a desktop computer.  This desktop is, unfortunately, to old for the network drive which we use to store school materials.  The laptop does this, but it is one of the student's computer on wheels.  Therefor, I can have the laptop to use but not keep in the situation a student would need it so when it is in my room it sits on the pull out table top)  This means I didn't have access to the items I use more often than the ones on the left.  

I found that if I label something I am less likely to put other junk in there because it doesn't match the label. Keeping that in mind, I knew it was essential that I sort and then label my drawers first.  This would help me get organized and stay organized.  

Top Center:  I labeled the baskets in which I will hold: pencils, pens, and markers. The markers are highlighters, dry erase, and permanent markers.  No crayola, they have their own drawer.  I got rid of: a stapler, a stapler remover, a tape dispenser, and three whole punch.  I threw away all the random stuff I had collected or put them where they belonged (toys, broken toys, etc). 

Top Left: I have made this the adhesive and notes drawer.  Tape, velcro, labels, stickers, labels, and the various types of tape needed are the adhesives in this drawer.  Clothes pins are also in here as they are used for student centers as well as art projects.  Post it notes, to do lists, and small paper is also in this drawer. 

Middle Left:  Teacher Needs.  The label on the drawer says: "teacher needs."  I have my meds, cough drops, food, drink flavors and feminine products all in this drawer. I realized this drawer does not open if the top middle drawer is not open.  That drawer is often blocked by the chair, so it is rarely open.  This mades having these items safe.  Also, the kids are really great about never going behind my desk. 

Bottom Left: The back has my sweater.   Ziplock bags and a roll of paper towel.  There is also the box of cords for the iPod, the books on tape to go to through the CD player and iPod case.  Love how EMPTY it is!

Top Right: Teacher Crayola.  I love my some crayola! I am particular about the tips and state of my materials.  This is why I need my own set.  Now, this looks like a lot of crayola, but it ranges from crayons, colored pencils, bold colors, original colors, etc.  Again, this is the drawer under the laptop so it is not needed often, but is there when I do need it.

Bottom Right:  This became the paper drawer and the contact paper drawer.  This is also where the abundant happy birthday donations went.  I am still just starting out, so I can't pass up a donation and this really will save me for next year.  I put them all in one bin and it is in the back of this drawer.  Also, this is where my new labels live (I got a 2 page pack from the dollar spot at Target!)

And the rest of my workspace includes that pesky under the stairs space.  I did discover/purchase these crates to separate the space and organize it.  Again, I went to the label it and that is all that is allowed there method.

Under the top platform of treehouse:

Pink box: zipper bags I get donated by a student and use for a large variety of things.  These need to be on hand, but if they don't fit in here, they go in a box in the closet.
Green box: grocery bags I collect as things come in.  I need this to send home wet/soiled clothes, extra materials, and garbage. Again, if they don't fit, I don't need that many.  They go to the garbage (or home for doggy walk bags ;) )
Left Crate: Dryer Sheets and table cloth: for art on the table and those smelly areas.
Right Crate: Books on Tape/Cd Books and Binders.  Binders are newly labeled (and used!)  I will get labels to match soon.  Baby steps ;)
Bottom Shelf:

Left Green and Pink Boxes: open and waiting for a need, but not going to fill if I dont need to.  

Right Pink: Books on tape CDs Right Green music CDs.

Bottom Shelf Left Crate: Text books, curriculum, lesson planning tools, etc.

Right of the crate: Continued Textbooks on the left.  Mimio boxes and guides on the right.

Under the actual stairs:

Crates on the Left: ABC Books for students.  30 books with 78 pages each takes up space!

Green bin on the right: Our journals.  Left is the AM class (they all have green covers and there is a green tag on that side) and the right is thePM class (they have yellow covers and there is a yellow tag on that side).  Pencils (sharpened) and an "oops, my pencil broke" bucket in between the journals.  On journal day, I put this on the front table and they can find and return their own journal easily.

Ahhhhh, much better workspace!