Keeping the Piece

My Kinders enjoy working with scissors and glue.  But, if you have ever worked with Kinders, scissors, and glue you know what a messy endeavor it can be.  Pieces fall on the floor, get mixed up with the neighbor's pieces, get thrown into the recycling bin, etc.  Finally I have come up with a simple solution to these woes!  (Why did it take me so long??)

The solution is as simple as mushroom containers and dish tubs!  We eat lots of mushrooms at our house, and one day as I was cleaning some for our salad I thought that the container they came in seemed too nice to just throw away.  (The teacher in me is always coming up for a way to re-purpose things.)  So, I started saving them.  Well, because we eat SO MANY mushrooms it didn't take very long to collect a class set (or two).

These little blue foam containers are the perfect size for holding small pieces of just about anything. Whenever the kiddos need to cut out small pieces they grab a blue tub.  By putting their pieces into a tub there are far fewer lost pieces!

But, it still wasn't totally fool proof.  Plus, there was a constant march to and from the recycling bin that sits just outside our classroom door.  (My husband is in the paper recycling business and we RECYCLE EVERY SCRAP OF PAPER!  I used to bring paper home to recycle before our school started the recycling program.)  There was also the occasional piece that got mixed in with the recycling.  In comes the dish tubs!  Each table has a pink scrap tub to collect scraps as the kids cut.  If a piece is accidentally mixed in with the recycling it is so much easier to find in the pink tub!

The solution was so simple ~ and inexpensive ($0.00 for the mushroom containers, and a couple dollars for each tub) ~ I can't believe it took so long to come up with this idea! 

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What's in my backseat? School supply shopping and ideas!

It's getting to be that time of year!!!!  I posted this picture on Facebook a couple days ago

Yep... that's just the beginning of my shopping trip.  It's Lisa here, from Second Grade Stories.  Aside from the usual crayons, scissors (I always pick up a couple extra pairs each year to replace those old yucky ones), etc... I also got a TON of containers. (Ignore the box of cereal in the back... it happens when you shop with teenagers...)

I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I bought and tell you how I plan to use them.  Maybe you'll get an idea for your room.  Here we go!

What's in my backseat?? (and trunk... and front seat...)

This picture is a re-post from my latest Five for Friday post.  This staplers is simply A-MA-ZZING!!  It is lightweight and easy to use - and the entire bottom comes off and attaches back ANYWHERE you want to staple.  I probably should have bought two of these.
(I got it from Amazon - click HERE for the link.)

Also in the box with the stapler are these things

That's the updated version of The Daily 5.  I have been doing Daily 5 in my room for about two years now and I love it.  I have not, however, been able to figure out how to get CAFE (the comprehension piece) up and running.  The new D5 book talks about how to integrate both - and there's a section on Math Daily 3.  I haven't read it yet, but it's next on my "to do" list!

I also got some erasable gel pens.  Or should I say, I got some MORE erasable gel pens.  I NEED colorful pens to do my plans.  These are retractable, too.  Colors are my friend - they help keep me organized.  Oh, how could I forget about these!

Need I say more?  My addiction has been revealed. At least, one of my addictions...

Ok, next up - folders and journals.

These will be for interactive grammar notebooks.  (GReen for GRammar.  Easy to remember.)  I have used interactive notebooks for a while now and I love them.  The grammar notebooks are more like reference books for students to use when they need to remember something.   I also have math and reading notebooks (both interactive), which also have pages for journaling, drawing, etc.

I decided to try something new this year and do interactive science notebooks.  Now, since we don't do science quite as much as the other subjects (just not enough time, people!), I didn't want to add yet another notebook in their workbox.  So... each time we focus on a science unit (life science, earth science, etc) I will put loose leaf pages in their folders and we will use them for gluing the interactive pages, drawing and writing about what we observe, etc.  After we're done with the unit, I'll take them out, staple them together and send them home.

Now that the basics are covered - on to the good stuff!

I go SOOO lucky at Big Lots!  These containers are really hard to find - they sell out so fast they're hard to come by.  But - I found them!  I was inspired by this photo from Kindercraze and her post on classroom library organization.  

I loved the colors!  I'm going to use the tall ones for my teacher binders, manuals, etc.  The other shorter ones I'm not sure... and the bigger one I just HAD to have - it has HANDLES!!  I'm sure I'll find many uses for that one.  And the container addiction doesn't stop here..

These are from Dollar Tree and are EXACTLY what I need to redo my classroom library.  It really needs an update and those colors were just calling to me... There are 3 sizes - one is longer and not as wide which will be great for chapter books and the next to it are taller and wider for picture books.  The ones on the left kind of ended up in my cart somehow....

And since we are getting organized, I finally broke down and bought one of these ten drawer carts (which I bought online from Target and then found at a CHEAPER price at BJ's in town..argh!)

This will be for my Daily 5 (word work and writing) and math centers.  I used trays like this last year and they worked well, but they had to be stacked on top of each other on a shelf and even though that seems like no big deal,  when you are seven years old and putting things away apparently it can be too much to ask... 

Oh - found just one more thing in my trunk

Also from the Dollar Tree.  We do The Mixed-Up Chameleon as a story to start out theme on being yourself and these make a great nonfiction partner piece.  I already had a couple and I'm on the lookout for more!  Unfortunately, the Dollar Tree by me is the bargain basement of Dollar Trees and does not usually have anything decent.  These came from a store half an hour from me.

Well, there you have it!  Whew!  I actually ended up getting just about everything I need.  Just one more trip to the teacher store for labels and borders and I should be done.  Unless of course, I find some more containers... or pens... or post its...