School Supply Craziness

For any of you who already use the interactive notebooks in your classrooms you already know this, but for those who are just starting, a good amount of school supplies are needed on a regular basis to complete each of the pages.

These supplies are the ones my students use on a regular basis:

     ~ Markers (thin and thick)
     ~ Colored Pencils & Sharpener
     ~ Crayons
     ~ Highlighters (6 different colors)
     ~ Glue Stick
     ~ Tape
     ~ Ruler, Compass, Protractor
     ~ Scissors

First Year Supply Organization:

In my classroom I have these AMAZING cabinets that have all of these bins.  Each bin has it's own specific item that goes in it and each bin is labeled. 

Whenever we were working on putting a page together I would take out ALL of the bins that we needed and set them on my supply table.

So why didn't this method work?

#1: This way took up a lot of my time throughout the day, each of my 3 math classes on any given day could be using different supplies so I would have to change them out constantly. So instead of greeting students as they came into the room I was spending my time getting the supplies ready.

#2: Students would always forget to grab all of the supplies that they needed, so they would get up to get what they forgot during the lesson and would lose out on instruction.

Second Year Supply Organization:

After my first year I did a lot of reflecting on the interactive notebook, my pages, the process, distribution, etc.  The supply organization/distribution was enough to quit doing the notebooks but I knew they were working for my students.  So I found a different way to get organized.

I wanted to get some sort of bin that all of the supplies we use could go into but stay neat and organized.  I went out looking for a shower caddie because I knew they had sections.  I found these ones at Walmart for $0.95 each over the summer when they had the college stuff out.

This is what each of the bins look like after the supplies were added.  Each table (groups of 4-5 tables) had one and the students shared supplies. 

These worked out so much better then the larger bins.  The most difficult part was making sure the students kept them organized.  After me nagging them about keeping them clean they learned it was better to just do what I wanted then having to listen to me.

What I liked about this the most was that students NEVER had to get up out of their seat to get supplies, no more forgetting and no more loss of instruction.