Center Orangization Linky Party!

I love organization and I have a ton of center activities here's how I currently organize them all.......

For all the activities I've printed and made i use clear pencil pouches with zippers, they are thicker than baggies and file well without falling over and scrunching up, each pouch has all the pieces of printed and laminated inside with a copy of any recording sheets that I might need to make a copy of...one thing I've done that I LOVE is to upload the printables to vista print and make a free notepad of them like this,

 I just have to pay the shipping, I have been using their spend 30 dollars get free shipping to do this, I can make about 20 notepads for 30 dollars. Then I put the little notepad in the pouch with the activity - it's ready to go the kids just tear one off to use it when they are at the center, they have to write smaller but they haven't had any issues with this! 

 Some of my larger centers that have full page pieces or printables are in poly envelopes like the ones above, I order them from School Specialty and get a box of 50 for 25 dollars, or I have found them at dollar tree 3 for a dollar but not lately, I am hoping they get more soon!

 

 Some of my holiday/seasonal centers that have specific manipulative to go with them are in tins like these that I got at the dollar store or target dollar spot, one of these has the hot chocolate counting mats in in with the mini marshmallow foam counters, the other has snowflake and mitten foam cut outs in it and pattern strips.

 All of my card games are in gift card boxes/tins, I got a ton of these for 25 cents each right after the holidays all my abc matching, go fish, and flash cards fit perfectly inside!
Once I have the center activities stored in a container/pouch they are organized into plastic drawers by subject/concept taught. These are my math drawers, I have one drawer for each concept addressed by the common core K-5 since I teach all grade levels. The pencil pouches/poly envelopes store very well in these.

These are my reading/word work drawers, I have a drawer for each of the big 5 reading components, sight-words, Alphabet recognition, colors/names, ect. again the pouches/envelopes store neatly inside.

For larger manipulative type center activities I use the Sisters idea from the Daily 5 book, I found these cardboard shoe keepers on craigslist, 12 of them for 5 bucks, and snatched them up. I am actually using a few in my shoe closet! The rest hold the shoe box size plastic totes wonderfully. Each box is labeled to show what's inside, I used an alphabet background for word work, reading tubs, and a blue background for math tubs. I love the ease of finding just what I need when I need it with these, although they take up some room they don't look bad stored on the open counter in the back of my room!

 

 Seasonal centers are in these larger drawers labeled by month/holiday. All manipulative, containers, and games are in here - I also have binders labeled for each month with copies of printables and art activities.

I started out with stacking tubs, but love the drawers because I don't have to pull everything down to get to one at the bottom, I can pull a drawer all the way out and take it with me - then return it when I'm done! Yeah this takes up a lot of room in my old classroom I had a large closet (use to be a 2nd bathroom) and every wall was lined with drawers, it was so nice just to walk in and find what I needed without digging, they are all currently stacked in my basement, which has also been nice because as I realize I need to address a certain skill I come home find the drawer pull it out and take it to school with me! I love it!!

Thanks to the Lesson Plan Diva for hosting this linky party! 

Head on over to her blog to see what more great organizational strategies!

I am very excited to see how others store their center materials!!