Organizing holiday materials idea

Do you ever wake up in one of those just *moods*?
You aren’t too sure what the heck your problem is or why you feel so drained.
Yep, that’d be today. 
Its a good thing my kiddos don’t have to deal with me.
I’ve decided maybe its because I spent most of Friday AND yesterday 
working on my final unit for my ESL class.  
Which, still is not 100% completed.
Or maybe because I still have a huge “to do list” for ESL and my own classroom.
And I really just want to read blogs all day, make new centers {penguins!}, and pin all dang day.
Okay, enough of the so sad story!
I know we are all just fighting to get to Christmas/Winter break.
Hang in there everyone!
I stayed very late Thursday night to organize some things and get ready for the sub on Friday.
Every fall/winter I get into this “must organize” funk.
I don’t get spring fever, but fall/winter.
As I was getting out my Christmas materials, 
I thought this could be helpful to some teachers, possibly.
I know it was one of the best things I did my first year!
{Thanks Kelli! aka my cousin’s wife}
What do you do with all of your themed pencils, erasers, etc when you have left overs?
Stick them in a drawer? And forget about them next year? 
That is how I started off my first half of my first year of teaching, unorganized.
Until I talked with good ‘ol Kel.
Containers organized by month/months.
I started out with a few months in each container {probably will split them up this year}.
I didn’t have a *ton* of stuff for each month my first year 
and I was broke! 
{umm…maybe still am?!:)}
I keep everything for October & November in this container.
Window clings, books, pencils, erasers, holiday bags for Halloween, 
even some left over die-cuts so I don’t spend time making new ones.
As you can see, it is pretty well organized into baggies and rubber bands.
If I find any good sales on items for these months throughout the year,
I’ll buy the item and stick it in the container.
And of course forget all about it until I pull this baby down.
Then get a huge surprise that I have it and get all excited.
{seriously just happened when I pulled down the December container!}
Here’s a little peek into the December container.
I really couldn’t believe how many pencils and erasers I had left over.
Can you say addicted to buying them?!
Good thing I haven’t bought any new ones this year yet.
I even threw in extras of the *little* gifts I’ve given over the years.
Figured I can always use them as a *surprise* reward to get us to break!
All the books are under everything else.  
This way I never forget about what I have!
I think this year I’ll even type up a list of all the books in each container.
This year I noticed I threw in printables for a few of the books
into the container that I used last year.
I kinda liked that because I didn’t have to go lookin’ into my files.
We will see if I progress in that direction or not.
{if you are wondering what the side pink slip is for, my first year I was afraid I’d totally forget what was in the containers, so I made little bullets of items in there.  So do not do that anymore.}
I store them on top of my cabinets.
Yes, I’ve almost fallen a few times getting it down during classtime.
Take off your heels ladies!
And just like Officer Buckle says, “Don’t stand on a spinning chair?!”
Yep, I did try that one day when I was too lazy to go get a different chair.
My kids got a good laugh as I was spinning around making “ooooo sounds.”
Hopefully this will give some of you some ideas!
I love learning to ways to organize things in my classroom from other bloggers
and always think, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”
I really try to be sooo organized and many subs write on their review that
“this is a very organized classroom.”
But yet, I always feel like its one big mess!
Anyone else feel like that?!
Alright, I’ve put my laundry away (usually wait for ever), washed my sheets, put jewelery away (dislike doing that), and now blogged this to you because it was *stuck* in my mind.
Procrastination anyone?
Time to get busy.

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4 Comments

  1. I found Rubbermaid tubs at Target last year right after Christmas for $5.00 each and bought ten…one for each month of the year. Copies, 90% off sale items, decorations, and examples of completed student work for the month go into the tub. I have two Christmas tubs, I have so much! I'm glad to see someone else buys everything for NEXT year! 😉

    Happy Christmas!

    Melly<><

    Stapler’s Strategies for Sizzlin' Second Graders!

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