Teachers are the best of the best of us. They teach, mentor, guide, educate, and love our greatest gift… the rising generation. Anything that will help out our wonderful teachers is a worthwhile pursuit.
These hacks will certainly make life easier in the classroom. Here are some brilliant blogger’s solutions to staying organized, smart, and creative—on a teacher’s budget.
A special thank you to all the bloggers and teachers that have shared these ingenious ideas with us, so that we can share them with our friends and our family.
1) Through the Looking Glass
Help encourage literacy with
magnifying glasses near your classroom’s stash of books. Students can look up close at words and pictures, helping with learning letters and story comprehension. This is an easy way to support independent learning.
Keep technological distractions to a minimum with a
numbered pocket chart dedicated to storing student cell phones. Kids can sign them in at the beginning of the day, and sign them out when leaving the room. This is a great idea to combat social media in a current-day classroom!
Impress parents with super straight letter on your bulletin boards. Once everything is set and stapled on your board, you can easily pull off the painter’s tape without ripping or ruining any of your bulletin paper it is covering.
*Painters tape comes off easily, without leaving any sticky residue or pulling up what is underneath it.
Keep everything in its place by using plastic shoeboxes can organize and store your classroom’s learning materials. Easily accessible, stackable, and shelf-able, these shoeboxes are a stellar idea.
Bring in the fun of a
bubble gum machine without the sugar! Fill the machine with small prizes, and reward good behavior from your students. A fun way to add some pizzaz to your daily routine.
Where have all the pencils gone!! Help students keep track of their pencils and erasers with a
pocket chart. Assign each student a number, or cover the pockets with kids pictures or names. A great idea.
7) Personalized Story Portals
File boxes are great for a lot of things, but especially quiet time. Give each kid their own box as a portal to explore new worlds with their imagination during reading time. Let your imagination roam with all the other uses for file boxes in your wonderful classroom.
Create colorful backpack reminders with
Asrtobrights. Staple labels to your student’s backpacks, you can even color-code the message categories. Parents won’t be able to miss them!
Help out your subs—and your students in the process—with a
desk caddy especially for the substitute. This picture is full of great ideas, including an emergency binder, which any sub would be grateful for!
Keep your classroom’s desk mess under control with a
toolbox. Don’t worry, toolboxes can be cute, just like your classroom. It’s compact but still big enough to organize all your desk essentials.
Have too many papers floating around? Help organize your day—and your students—with easy access to anchor charts. Using a
clothing rack to store them keeps anchor charts wrinkle-free.
12) Ding-Dong, Quiet Please
It’s too loud! Tired of yelling? Get your student’s attention without raising—or losing—your voice. A
wireless doorbell is a friendly way to lower noise or signal the class to face the front of the room.
It’s easy to store sick student’s absent work with a
hanging wall organizer. It can provide easy access when parents and family members come in to pick up work. Choosing a fun color scheme can also brighten up your walls.
14) Portable Note Pockets
Tired of trying to hold on to hall passes and notes to home? Keep track of your portable notes with
adhesive packets. Stick them to a clipboard, high up on a classroom board, or any surface you have set up.
Be green and keep things clean by reusing a disposable drink tray for painting. It’s perfect for holding watercolor paint trays as well as cups with water for dipping between colors. These trays could also be adapted for holding other types of paint containers.
Keep your students going with an easy way to grab a pencil. Keep track of pencils that need to be sharpened or ones that are ready to go with an
acrylic straw dispenser and little bins in your pencil station.
17) Hula Hoops & Pool Noodles
Use these everyday items for a giant math manipulative. It’s easy to cut up a few pool noodles and thread them on a cut open hula hoop. When you’re done, just tape the hula hoop closed with some masking tape and you are ready to go. It’s cheap too!
18) Contact Paper Remodel
This is a great hack! Fun printed contact paper can be used to spice up old tables, boxes, or any dull or old surface in your classroom.
Packs of little
facial scrubbers make great whiteboard erasers. It’s easy to keep stocked up, they are small and comapact, and each student can have their own without breaking the bank. These scrubbers come in fun colors too.
20) The File Box of Learning
A boring old
file box can be spiced up with color to keep track of paper copies for each week. This way, you don’t have to shuffle things around on your desk or run back and forth to the copy room every day.
Use a hanging rack to keep germs at bay by converting it into an easy to pull out tissue dispenser. This is easy to reach for the kids, and easy for you to refill. The tissue boxes won’t get lost either!
Create a permeant stapler station by putting it on the wall. It’s hard to lose or break a stapler when it’s mounted in one place. This way also makes it easy to know when you are out of staples and takes up very little room.
Everyone gets there own eraser with craft poms. Just whip out your glue gun, match the colored poms to the color of marker, and genius–no more endless searching for an eraser.
24) Color-Coded Condiment Paints
Condiment bottles are easy to spray paint and rinse out at the end of the day. They make fun and low maintenance paint dispensers—it’s an easy way to save of the mess during painting time.
Make group work easy with organizer drawers. It’s easy to tape up color-coded signs on each bin and gives each group more time to work. This method also fosters independence during the school day.
26) Individual White Boards
Dry erase spots can replace a pencil and paper for activities like guided reading time. Let your students have the freedom to easily write, draw, and erase. This method is good for the environment and the imagination landscape.
27) “Ring”-le Up Stickers
A binder ring and a hole punch with wrangle up any sticker sheets or other loose papers you have running around your desk. This is a great idea for student materials as well.
Laundry hooks and pant hangers at the perfect solution to store anchor charts. You can have a hook for each category to keeps things organized. This method gives easy access for the students to view the anchor charts for that day.
29) Bulletin Board Border Rod
Keep your bulletin board borders nice by hanging them on a rod. Shower curtain rods are adjustable in size, and easy to move and mount at different locations, depending on your classroom set up. A great idea!
Make an entire table for use with dry erase markers. Duck dry erase lamanite allows you to dedicate a large space that can be written on with no boundaries. Use the dry erase space for yourself or your students during group work or guided reading.
A
rolling cart makes the perfect station for volunteer parents. All of the supplies for that day can all be kept in one place, and your volunteer parent can be free to move around, students can stay at their desks and stations.
Command hooks are an easy way to store and keep track of headphones. The hooks come off easily, so when you need to move a hook it won’t damage your walls. You are also free to arrange the hooks however works best for your walls.
Using a baby clothing rack is a nice way to display big books. This option looks nice and it will help your kids practice their fine motor skills with the clips. Great find.
It’s easy to make quick individual dry erase boards. Use plastic plates! They are cheap and your students can choose their own fun color.
Make sections for each student at your group desks with colored scotch tape. This way, your students can stay in their own individual lane and pay more attention to what is going on.
36) Cut Composition Notebooks
Composition notebooks can be cut in half for double the quantity and half the price. We heard that your local Home Depot will even cut them for you!
No more spills with a fin
inflatable drink holder. Keep your desk dry! Little hands and shuffling papers can easily knock over the sturdiest of cups.
Give your students something to think about by creating meaningful spaces with
adhesive letters. Colorful and fun letters can give meaning to a space while making things more fun and interesting.
Everyone needs a
circle cutter! It’s great to be able to cut circles easily and quickly, and have the, be the same size and shape EVERY TIME. This is a priceless tool.
A
jewelry holder is the perfect way to store and dispense your washi tape. You can color-code your tape and this method is compact, organized, and pretty!
41) Voice Level Tap Lights
Tap on the corresponding light for the voice level you want in your classroom.
Tap lights provide an easy way to communicate with your students without wearing out your voice.
Astrobrights cardstock is an easy way to color-code your files, making things quicker, easier, and more organized. It’s also fun to choose the colors for your cabinet.
43) Magnetic Anchor Boards
It’s easy to put anchor boards up and take them down
with magnetic curtain rods. Pull out the anchor board your students are currently working with, and stick it right on your whiteboard.
Store large amounts of Astrobrights and other colorful paper effortlessly. Use
rolling carts to make your paper storage compact and easy to access.
45) Simple Sensory Experience
Sensory experiences always a fun time, especially for kids.
Water beads are an easy way to fill up a sensory experience bin, and they come in all different colors.
Photo boxes are the perfect size to hold student task cards. It’s easy to print and stick labels to each box, to keep everything organized and compact.
Finger puppets are a fun way to help students track the text while reading. Students can feel like they have a little furry friend accompanying them while reading.
This is genius. Encourage students to use their imaginations, all while keeping their desks clean. You never know when the desk fairy will pop out of their
mini door to say hi!
Paddle answers back and forth, or give students an easy way to answer while still keeping the noise down by using
dry erase paddles.
Stick some
sit spots to your classroom rug to help assist students in finding a seat during circle or reading time. It’s easy to put colorful spots and assign students different colors if needed.
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Teachers are the best of the best of us. They teach, mentor, guide, educate, and love our greatest gift… the rising generation. Anything that will help out our wonderful teachers is a worthwhile pursuit.
These hacks will certainly make life easier in the classroom. Here are some brilliant blogger’s solutions to staying organized, smart, and creative—on a teacher’s budget.
A special thank you to all the bloggers and teachers that have shared these ingenious ideas with us, so that we can share them with our friends and our family.
