Back to School Organization #2–Table Kits

Using student table kits are a great way to organize your student materials. Although you can use bins, baskets, or other small containers, use what you are most comfortable with. I’ve used all the ideas presented here and change from year to year and sometimes during the school year as well.

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Tabletop bins like this above are more helpful at the beginning of the Kindergarten school year since they can hold a variety of materials and students learn to share.

Materials I’ve placed in these range. However, I always place crayons, pencils, large pink erasers, glue sticks, small whiteboard erasers, whiteboard pens, and sometimes resources like books and other manipulatives.

You can usually purchase these in the dollar spot at Target for $1 to $3.00 around this time of the year.

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Another way I’ve organized student kits is to purchase pencil boxes.

Although these are not as large or hold as much as the table top kits, it’s also a great way to organize student stuff. It takes a bit more to manage in Kindergarten in the beginning of the year but as time goes on, students become more responsible for their boxes.

I prefer the smaller boxes. Depending upon your teaching style, you may find that you need additional table top kits for your centers as well. I prefer table top kits at the tables but also the smaller pencil boxes for individual use at stations.

You can usually find the Sterilite brand above at Wal Mart for $.50 to $.75 right now.

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Finally, another way to organize student materials is by using Ziploc bags. It’s more inexpensive to purchase the bags in the beginning but will most likely cost you more in the long run.

Should you try this method, be sure to get the zippers and the freezer type bag as they hold up better. Also, you will probably spend more time teaching your students how to be more responsible as they tend to toss these around.

And, of course you can find these most anywhere for less. I’ve tried the Target brand but found I liked the Ziploc the best.

If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Terena