After seeing my story highlight about my “Exploration Stations”, Michaela from Especially Education asked me to write a guest blog post on her blog about how I set up this independent work system and how it works.

Click on the picture below to read more about it…

 

Q & A about this system: 

Q: Would this work in my classroom if I am trying to implement student choice?
A: Definitely depends on how much choice you want to give them. My students still have complete choice over their activity BUT they are choosing from the drawer I assigned them to (6-10 activities in each). If you want to give them even more choice their name/picture can be on two drawers and they can choose between the two. My students still need a lot of structure, so putting their picture on a drawer and having them choose from there draw really worked for us. 

Q: How many activities are in each drawer for them to choose from?
A: Depending on the size of the containers they are in, 6-10 activities. 

Q: How often do you switch which drawer they are choosing from?
A: Every Friday afternoon I switch their drawer for the next week. They stay in the same drawer for one week. We also rotate the activities in the drawers daily, because some of my sneaky little friends always choose the same activity. So when I say rotate I mean we put the activities in the front of the drawer in the back and vice versa. 

Q: How many activities do the students do a day?
A: This depends on a lot of things; ability level, the activity, and the day itself. If we are able to do these activities for the full time allotted, my students can complete 2-4 activities. Some activities take longer than others.

Q: How do you differentiate?
A: Having a lot of drawers is key. I am even able to give students their own drawer that is designed with activities specific to them. Some drawers have activities with just 6 pieces in them, where others have 10+. There is a lot of opportunity for differentiation. 

Q: How do you keep track of who goes to what drawer?
A: I write it all down on a chart. (see image below)

Welcome back to my blog! In this post I am going to share how I organize all of my Creative Curriculum materials. I get asked about this a lot when I post on my Instagram stories so I thought that this would be a good place for me to explain it all in detail and add some pictures for you! I will also provide links if I reference anything that I use from my TPT store, somebody else’s TPT store or that I have purchased for my classroom. If I purchased from Amazon you will be brought to my Amazon Store. Click on ‘Classroom Organization’ to find everything I reference.
I hope this helps some of you!

Background

Our supervisor provided us with 10 Creative Curriculum Studies when the district switched to the Creative Curriculum. We have the following studies; Beginning of the Year, Boxes, Clothes, Buildings, Trees, Bread, Pets, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Roads and Balls (we only use during ESY if needed). The Pre-K team decided a few years ago to make an ‘A’ and ‘B’ year with the studies. We did this because there are too many studies to fit into a year and we have so many students that are with us for 2 years, so this way they get something different each year.  

A year: Beginning of the Year, Boxes, Clothes, Buildings, Trees
B year: Beginning of the Year, Trees, Bread, Pets, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Roads

File Boxes

I store most of my materials for each study in a clear file box. I have 2 different file boxes, one for Year A and one for Year B. I keep the guides for each study in a book bin in between the 2 file boxes so that they are close by.  

For each study I have an expandable hanging file. I use manila folders for all of the materials inside of the colored expandable hanging files. I use labels that I made for each of the manila folders. I have a nicer version of these labels in my TPT store. They include pictures on each label that indicate the unit. They are also editable so you can add whatever labels you want, if the ones I provided aren’t enough. 

Manila Folders

Each of the following have their own manila folder for each study:

• Word wall words: I buy on TPT or make myself (can’t post on TPT because I mostly use google images to make life easier)
• Theme/focus question posters: in my TPT store
• Each focus question: this is where I store anything specific to that focus question
• Seat work materials: these are worksheets we do during morning work (see ‘My Schedule’ blog post for more information on this)
• Projects: I store projects in gallon Ziploc baggies
• Cooking: printed examples of our cooking projects to reuse in the future (see my Instagram story highlight ‘cooking activities’ for some examples)

Small Group Materials

I store all of my small group activities for each study in these clear bins with blue clips. They fit the clear envelopes that I use to store each activity very nicely. I use my mini eraser labels to label the envelopes. There is a clear pocket on each of the envelopes that fits the label perfectly. 

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Anchor Charts

I store all of the anchor charts for each study in my classroom closet on hooks. I use binder rings to keep all of the charts for each study together and then I hang the rings on the hooks. I use TwoPeasInAPrimaryPod anchor charts for each focus question. Check out my Modifying the Creative Curriculum blog post for more information on how I make the Creative Curriculum work for my students.

Curriculum Books

I store all of the books from the Creative Curriculum in a crate. Each study has its own hanging file and label and I put all of the books in there. This crate stays in my classroom closet. During a study I pull out all of the books I will need and put them on my “Books we’re reading” display.  This display is a mixture of Creative Curriculum books and books I find that go along with the study. The magnetic shelves are an amazing addition to my classroom! 

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I hope this helps some of you get organized! This method works for me and I understand it does not work for everyone. I also took a lot of time to do all of this over the past 2 years. It took a lot of trial and error, but now that I have this system in place, it makes life much easier! Happy organizing!