Classroom Organization Ideas

Have I mentioned that I am addicted to Pinterest? I have been getting all kinds of ideas from fellow teachers' boards. Here is one idea I saw on there - using a Lazy Susan turn table with buckets for supplies. I decided to use this idea for my art center. My art center was always so messy after my little ones were hard at work creating - and the mess drove me crazy! :) So, I got this idea from Pinterest and here it is:

I had each student bring a 3-ring binder to keep at school at the beginning of the year. I use these as scrapbooks for their school year. Any "Super Star" work, photos, etc goes in their scrapbook and they will have a ready-made memory book for when they graduate kindergarten! 

 My school uses these phoneme posters each week and I found this chart hanger in a spare room. I have found that this is a MUCH easier way to store my posters.  I can flip through them easily and they are out of the way. In years before, the posters would be in the way on the floor or on the board held by magnets. This keeps them together and the whole thing can be moved to any spot in the classroom. 

Yet another Pinterest idea - using a dish drying rack to store writing center supplies. I got the rack for about $8 at Walmart and the white boards fit perfectly! The rack fits just right on the shelf (and again it cuts down on the mess in the center!).

This hangs near the door to the classroom. It is purely decoration. We don't have a real need for hall passes in kindergarten!

 Our class rules are the 4 Be's. 

 We hang this outside the classroom door when we have perfect attendance! This way anyone walking by can see that we have everyone present that day!

 Martian Fingers! I purchased these from Oriental Trading Co. and they make my guided reading groups so much fun!

 My assistant I have found over the years that having small group time (guided reading, testing, etc) works best during centers time. We each have a group, so only half the class is in centers at a time. This helps with noise; and we rotate, so the students in groups Monday get to play Tuesday, etc. with "free" centers on Fridays, meaning everyone gets to play in centers on Fridays.