You know that feeling when you finish (I mean, it’s never really finished) setting up your classroom at the beginning of the year, and everything is neat and tidy? Or at least, MOSTLY neat and tidy. But then, the students come and you’re so happy they are there- but your room is all of a sudden full of STUFF. I try to be as minimal as I can, but there’s just a lot of school supplies that come with teaching. Folders, notebooks, pencil boxes, dry erase boards, headphones, all the things. So, how do you store it all?
My first year teaching I had 18 students. It was a dream. I had my desks organized into groups, and in between each group I was able to have a community supply desk. The desk is where I kept those cute little caddies with extra pencils, crayons, a tissue box, etc.But, then the next year I had more students and needed to use the extra desks for extra kids. Since I lost the supply desk, I needed something that didn’t take up a lot of space and wasn’t too expensive. So, I bought storage drawers and they ended up being PERFECT!
In my classroom, I keep a drawer cart at the end of each group. I’ve used them for different things, but they’ve always been for student supplies. At the top I put a caddy with extra supplies and then inside students keep different things. The top drawer is usually for tissue boxes and headphones. The middle and bottom drawers are usually where they kept their reading bags that they use for independent reading time.
This past year because students were not allowed to share supplies, I ended up assigning a drawer for each student. I did end up having to buy one extra set of drawers to accommodate all my students, but I loved the way it worked out! Students kept all their essential supplies in their desks like their notebooks, folders, and pencil boxes. They used their drawers for any of their extra supplies like pencils, extra glue sticks, etc. They also kept their mini-morning tubs and their wallets for our classroom management system. Even if my students are able to share supplies in the future, I still planning on using the drawer storage the same way!
Now, let’s talk sustainability because kids can be HARD on things. Next year will be my 13th year teaching and these are my second set of drawer carts. A few years ago I took a year off from teaching to stay home with my kids and I stored all my classroom stuff in a storage unit. Instead of paying for a larger storage unit, I got rid of my drawer carts and decided to buy new ones. It was definitely cheaper to buy new ones instead of pay for a larger storage unit for an entire year! So, technically I could have made my original ones last longer!
The good thing about these drawers, is you can really find the anywhere! I got mine at Walmart, but you can also get them at Target and Amazon!
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