Saturday, February 18, 2012

Better Late Than Never!


One of my favorite blogs Clutter Free Classroom is hosting a wonderful linking party titled The Clutter Free Classroom Project.





After stalking some of the blogs that have linked up and shared their wonderful organizing ideas and images, I decided is was time that my OCD self joined the party.


So since I am a little behind on the action, I decided to link up with the Week 5 challenge:  




So here are a few pics of my favorite storage containers.


My all time favorite storage container would have to be  Sterlite Plastic Drawers.




In the above image you can see all of the plastic drawers that are housed behind my teaching table.  In the bottom drawers (excuse the one that is missing, a fellow teacher has borrowed that one) I house all the DRA leveled readers that I send home for independent reading homework.  In the middle and top drawers, I house all the items that I need for small group guided reading instruction.  The smaller ones on top house all the little doodads that we need (paperclips, bandaids, staples, pens, etc.).  The cute buckets on top (my classroom is beach themed so buckets are another favorite storage container of mine) house remotes, scissors, glue sticks, notepads (the stuff that I use on a daily basis and don't want to open a drawer to get to).


So knowing all of this...here is what my teaching area looks like:




As you can see, I have more plastic drawers on the other side of my file cabinets.  One set of those drawers house the work papers and workstation supplies that I need on a Monday - Friday basis.  I refill them at the end of each week.  The second set is currently houses a variety of stuff like small sentence strips (dollar tree), index cards, die cuts, nametags, etc.


After looking at this image, my mind is telling me it looks a little too cluttered, but it will have to do for this year.  I try not to do any major reorganization during the school year because I like to focus the majority of my time on teaching.  


Thanks for checking out my post and come join the party and link up at Clutter Free Classroom.

Happy Blogging!
Ann



6 comments:

  1. It doesn't look a bit disorganized to me!

    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

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  2. I really like the upclose view of all your containers. I was at Wal-Mart this morning and was so excited to see a red and white version of these. My husband thinks I have gone insane as I thought they were so cute! They also had turquiose and black.

    I see what you mean by looking clutter despite how organized you are. I was thinking if you moved all the containers together it would look less cluttered and more like 1 big section. Or perhaps switching them with the file cabinets would help. Also one of the table skirts would do wonders for the area and maybe the only thing you need to give it a cleaner look. Just thought I would share some ideas.

    Misty
    Think, Wonder, & Teach

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    1. Misty,

      Thanks for your ideas. I love the idea of a table skirt. I did buy some cute stackable round blue stools from IKEA to make it a little cuter. My colors are blue, green and hot pink so maybe a table skirt will hide some of the clutter. And an added benefit would be I could store things under the table. Love that idea.

      I too have seen the ones in turquiose and black. Love them. Wish I could invest more money in them but I have to control myself.

      Thanks for the ideas!

      Ann

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  3. Good for you!
    I think your organization is so impressive--especially keeping the readers together. My guided reading cupboard is one big jumble.

    Loved the peek into your classroom. Thanks for sharing!

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kim. I hope to post more pics and ideas as the linky party continues. It is fun!

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