Supply Round Up!

There have been many posts about organizing classroom supplies, but I thought I would share my two cents on the subject.

I use community supplies and ask parents NOT to label any of the things that they donate to our classroom with their child's name.

I like to use these big caddies that are from Target. They are large and in charge... but there is a compartment for everything. I have been using these for about four years. The last set were purple and lasted three years and just this summer I went on back.... in search of the same ones crossin' my fingers Target would still have them and they did!! Yay! I couldn't find them on Target's website to share it with you {but honestly I just saw them there!} but this is a link for Walmart.

I don't put a table name or number on the caddy itself and this is mainly because I feel it looks tattered pretty quickly and isn't necessary so I adopt the "Less is More" theory here.

Now, I just color coordinate each caddy using washi tape. Are you not in love with washi tape? I am! I want to use it on everything. And now I am not even satisfied with the options in Michaels or Hobby Lobby... I get my washi tape fix on Amazon {check out my latest purchase}...and I have heard Etsy has some good options too.

Here is each item inside one caddy:

And then the same matching washi tape is around the caddy itself- which makes it look cuter, but clearly serves a purpose:

I have a big roll of each washi tape I used so it will be easy to quickly slap some on a new glue stick when I replenish... but if I run out I am not going to be worried about finding the exact same tape. I was thinking I can just try to stick to the color...so in this case purple... and just add a stripe of the new washi tape on the outside:

And in case you have never used washi tape it is very easy to remove so I would easily be able to lift washi option one if I needed to. The key is to simplify life... not be running 80 errands to find the same exact tape in March when I run out. Right?

For this same reason... you know, the one about keepin life simple... I chose NOT to do this:

It can be a good idea to put washi tape on your pencils depending on other systems in your room.

I keep 7-8 sharp pencils in each caddy. The kiddos know that if a pencil breaks they can go on over and trade their pencil out for a fresh one here:

I decided I didn't want table specific pencils because I would need to make sure the sharp pencil jar not only had new pencils, but ones for every table... um, that seemed like too much work. So pencils have no label! I also think that will cut down on how much tape I need.

And apparently this post is just as much about keeping life simple as it is about organizing...but notice the hand writing on the pencil containers. Once upon a time I used to do everything in paint pen and was just confessing this same thing in THIS POST about playdough last week... but then I moved on to vinyl letters... and well, that was the plan here... and it didn't happen and school was about to start... so once again, I rocked the paint pen. And I'm sharing this because sometimes I would stay that extra half hour... that then turns into an hour just to Cricut some vinyl letters... but time is ticking so I went paint pen again, apparently I'm bringing it back for the 13-14 year.... I have to choose my battles projects! Right!?

As for the scissors... you probably noticed that the colors also match... just in case you didn't you can take a look at the green caddy:

Green washi on glue and crayons....green scissors and a dot of green marker {with a Sharpie} on the erasers (which sadly you can't see... look above at the purple picture)

I bought the scissors myself this year. I have never done this before and look at this crazy Target cart in July {as I shared on Instagam}

Why did I do this? Well, let me count the reasons why:
A. They are on sale in the summer !
B. I know Fiskars are a good brand so I will never hear "These ones don't work!" And whenever a child said that it almost always was a different scissor brand or a pair of Fiskars I had hung on to for just one year too many.
C. I won't have any fighting over the color of the scissors or for the ones that are slightly bigger or smaller, etc.
D. It looks nice to have a color theme for the whole caddy.

So, I will update you later to see if my scissor purchase is as grand of an idea as I think it will be.

So that's it. That is how I organize supplies. You may have noticed I am starting with 8 packs of crayons. Those were donated in June and is new for me....but I am kinda excited. I will be blogging about my color unit we start with and I think these 8 packs will be the gentle and easy start that we need. We will graduate to the 16 packs in October {provided by parents} and then to 24 packs {as seen in picture above} later. Gives us something to celebrate every so often in class.

Some years I also graduate the little ones to their own personal pencil boxes in the last trimester, but for now our focus is sharing and being a member of the classroom community.