Fresh Ideas of 2015 with Stephany from Primary Possibilities

Hi there!  This is Stephany from Primary Possibilities here to share an idea for the new year!

I have tons of materials (manipulatives, games, sorts, printables) and tons of ideas (anchor charts, craftivities, bulletin board displays, etc.) for each standard in the curriculum.  I have gathered these ideas from so many great blogs and TpT stores or I have them stored in so many places it is hard to keep track of them all!  It seems like every time I get done teaching a standard I remember some great idea that I did last year or that I stored away and I totally forgot to use!

I was searching Pinterest and came across this picture from "Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road" who found the picture originally from "That's So Second Grade".

It gave me the idea to come up with my own way to organize myself by standard.   I came up with this handy form that you can use to keep track of ideas, materials, anchor charts, and digital files for each standard.

I plan to keep a copy of this sheet filled out in a binder.  I can place pictures of anchor charts, projects, or other ideas in the plastic sleeve with the standard sheet.  When I am planning for that standard, I can just pull out the binder and quickly locate all of the materials I need!

You can grab up the Freebie PDF where you can fill in the info by hand by clicking HERE. You can grab up the editable PPT where you can type in the info and add pictures HERE!

Don't forget out Laminator Giveaway here at The Elementary Entourage!  Enter below to win!

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Get Planning {Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all! Happy New Year!!! I just wrapped up my first week back to school just in time for a long weekend to celebrate MLK. I love the year round schedule! Have I said that before? :)

This round of blog posts is geared toward planning and making your life easier. Let me first start by saying that, to me, organizing and planning go hand in hand. This post will have several pictures of how I organize my classroom to aid in planning. Let's do this....

If you are anything like me, a pretty planner and nice pens always make planning more enjoyable. If you have been following me for some time, you are aware that I typically do visual lesson plans. I stepped away from them this year and never looked back. I love planning in my Erin Condren planner. Notice all the colorful tabs! Oh yeah!!

Using your planning format, whatever that may be, you can begin writing down your thoughts for the coming week. I tend to start planning my small groups first. I begin with my SMARTIES and READING round planning pages.

{Click on any of the images above to visit my TPT store and browse these pages}

Because I teach in an inclusion class, the bulk of my instruction is done in small groups. These planning pages really help me keep my activities in stations on track. In addition, I can use the planning pages to specifically outline which skills we will be learning in small groups.

After I finish my small group planning, I plan my math and reading units around our grade level pacing guide. I pull resources that support those lessons. What better way to do this than to have everything organized in your classroom? I know we did some organization posts already, but really the two go hand in hand. Below are just some of the ways I keep things organized in my classroom to make planning a breeze.

Once you are organized, planning really takes care of itself. Just kidding! I could not put all my resources and thoughts together without this handy dandy checklist. I usually begin filling this out around Wednesday and start printing during specials on Thursday. Everything else is ready to go Friday morning for the next week and I am out the door right after the kiddos on Friday! YEAH!!!

{Click on the image to be taken to TPT}

Schroeder Shenanigans in Second is really a super woman in disguise in my opinion. She never ceases to amaze me. I really could not be as organized and thoroughly planned without this tool she so masterfully designed. Did I mention it is editable...SWOON!

I have learned that planning is really individualized. From computers to clipboards, every teachers finds their own method to the weekly madness we call teaching. Enjoy!

Happy New Year from The Learning Chambers

Happy New Year and last half of the school year!!  Today is my first day back from break, and I'm sure it is for most of you too.  Today is a planning and professional development day for us, so I've been pretty busy prepping materials for my classroom.  I'm very excited to share how I keep organized with cute labels.

Focus Wall Labels

I love making my focus wall cute and organized!  I've had my focus wall on my dry erase board and this year it's on a bulletin board.  I just post my subject labels on the board by putting magnets on the back of these laminated cards or stapling them to my bulletin board.  Then, each day I write down the objective for each subject area.  I also post the question of the lesson under the subject label and any vocabulary words that I want my students to remember.

I have several different types of subject labels that you can grab in my store for FREE.  The ones pictured above are the brights polka dot.

Click on the links below to find the perfect match for your classroom decor.  You could also use them to label bins, file folders, or label anything really :).

Elephant Daily Subject Objective Labels
Chevron and Frogs Daily Subject Objective Labels
Chevron and Chalkboard Daily Subject Objective Labels
Lights Polka Dot Daily Subject Objective Labels
Brights Polka Dot Daily Subject Objective Labels
Rainbow Chalkboard Daily Subject Objective Labels
Chalkboard Daily Subject Objective Labels


Avery Labels

Is anyone else obsessed with Avery Labels?  I just love typing up my kids name in cute fonts and labeling well....everything!  I normally label their folders and their school supplies.

Aren't these so cute?!?!  You can also grab them in my store for FREE.  Click on the product cover below to grab them.

I hope you enjoyed reading about how I use labels to organize my instruction and student supplies.

An InLinkz Link-up

Day 4 of The Elementary Entourage's Organization Tips & a FREEBIE!

I'm here to share some organization tips for the new year!  These are some of my favorite from over at our blog at Primary Possibilities!

I had these round tupperware containers lying around my classroom... cheap, easy to stack, great size for storing... so I rolled my borders up and wow... perfect border storage!

This is something my blog partner Stephanie came up with.  I always see these jewelry storage "things" at TJ Max or Marshalls on sale.  She uses hers to store her magnetic letters!  The hook at the top lets you hang it just about anywhere.  No more opening those clumsy plastic boxes when you are trying to work with words on the go!  She hangs hers near her rug area so she can grab letters super fast during whole group time.

Finally, I will leave you with a freebie from my store.  I had a huge mess of a craft locker my first year teaching.  It was embarrassing so I decided that following summer I was going to get containers, label them and get super organized... here are the before and after shots.

Here is where you can grab up the labels! Click on the design you like!  

Feel free to link up your organization blog posts below!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy New Year from The Elementary Entourage: Organization Tips for your files & a FREEBIE!

Happy New Year Friends~

I'm glad to be back here on our collaborative blog with you today! For the first half of the month we will be hosting an open link up for everyone to get ideas & inspiration to start your New Year right. Here is the schedule for January 1st ~ 17th. If you are a blogger, we would be honored for you to link up any posts that fall into the following categories! 

So I am here today to show you a few way I get organized...

Who loves Google? Who loves Google Drive? I do, I do!!!

I'll admit, I never was a Dropbox gal. Mainly because I was never in a school that used it, that was until last school year when I arrived in NC. I had everything on multiple thumb-drives for years. The system worked for me, but I couldn't access my files if I didn't have my thumb-drive, but I always had internet. So I turned to Google Drive a little over a year ago & I haven't looked back [I am looking forward though, I would like to have my files on a portable hard drive to be safe, but that's a New Year's Resolution of mine, it's in my Amazon cart as we speak]. 

There are many ways to set up & organize your life using Google Drive. I also like the simple way of sharing a file or folder if wanted as well. This is a one stop shop for me so to speak, I have all my files in one place. I can go here to get a product I've purchased, a product I've made, school files, personal files & more [I haven't completely merged all of my files here yet, it's a work in progress]. A lot of teachers at my school like to use the Teacher Share drive. That is fine too, but you can't access it when you are off campus & they are usually cleared out over the summer break. 

Here is a video clip on using Google Drive for saving and/or sharing your files:

[Click on the image below for a direct link to the video]

Lastly, here is a little FREEBIE to organize your Log In's & Passwords for 2015! It's editable as well. Just download your copy & save in PowerPoint. You can edit it there to add your own information.

[Click on the image below to grab your copy]

I am wishing everyone a safe & healthy New Year! Thanks for following The Elementary Entourage!

Please link up any blog posts of your own below about getting organized for the New year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy New Year from The Elementary Entourage!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are enjoying your last few days of relaxation before winter break ends.  I'm loving seeing all of the goals and resolutions from all of my blogging friends, so here at the Elementary Entourage we wanted to share some ideas with you to help you with your goals! 

 Here is what we have in store :)

  We will be sharing our ideas each day for the first 2 1/2 weeks of January and we would LOVE it if you'd link up too.

I'm up first so today I'd love to share my tip for organization with you. 

For real, I get so excited to organize things, it's like a weird addiction for me.

Here are some tips that I use in my classroom to help things run more smoothly:

 Organizing all those fantastic teaching resources is always a struggle.  I used to store all of my teaching materials in hanging files in my classroom.  

This was an okay system until I needed to plan. How many people have time to actually get their plans done while in their classroom? I know that I was never able to get everything done at school so I'd end up taking a folder of two home with me to finish my plans.  This always turned into a paper crinkling, falling out, hanging files stabbing me, and getting lost disaster!  So I finally decided one summer to put everything in binders, and let me tell you that this changed my teaching planning life!

Just look at how nice they look sitting there on the shelf *sigh* Okay so here is what I did. First I sorted everything by theme/unit that I teach.  Then within the binder I sorted into categories for reading, writing, math, and fun.  Most items are hole punched but some I put in page protectors for safe keeping.  I also started binders for each subject as well for non thematic materials.  Now that I have them all at home I want to sort through them even more, but thats my OCD.  Here are the covers for my binders if you are interested in binderizing your teaching files!

My next tip is for organizing your classroom library. If you are like me you have a problem with buying ridiculous amounts of children's books and are constantly reorganizing your classroom library.  I usually end up with bins that get too full and either have to change to a larger basket or subdivide the category.  I saved myself some time by creating labels that can be numbered and renumbered easily.  I also use velcro to attach the labels to my baskets so they are easy to remove and attach to different baskets. Here is a quick overview of my system and my labels.

I have the same labels available in black or chevron as well. Hopefully you can use some of these tips to help with your organizational goals.

Don't forget to check out the great tips our team will be sharing as well as link up to share your own! Here are the rules;

1. Please link to a blog post, not a TPT store.
2. Please link back to the Elementary Entourage blog in your post.
3. Show some love to the others linked up by visiting their blog and leaving a comment or 2.

An InLinkz Link-up