CLASSROOM MUST HAVES | things I love in my classroom

hello everybody my name is Katie and I'm about to start my sixth year of teaching I'm going to be teaching third grade in the State of Florida and today's video is one that I've been meaning to film for quite a while and I'm so glad that this summer has given me the chance to come up to my classroom and film this but I'm going to give you guys an updated video that gives you some of my top classroom must-haves so if you're looking for things to buy for your classroom and you're wanting some opinions from a teacher this is the video for you [Music] now the reason I've been wanting to film this video for a while is because I actually already have a classroom must-haves video on my channel however I filmed it just about three years ago so it was the first year that I had my channel I filmed a top five classroom must-haves video and let me tell you people still watch that video today like if I look at my YouTube analytics that's always up in like top watch this month people are still watching that video which is good because all of the five things that I mentioned in that video are still five of my top things like I went back and looked to see like what did I mention in that video and I don't regret putting any of those things in that video as a top five must-have so if you have not seen that video already I will link it above in the card so you can go check out my original video because I'm not mentioning any of those five things in this video I didn't want to like repeat things so go check out top 5 classroom must-haves today I'm going to give you a little bit more than five but now I've been teaching for five years now so when I filmed my first video I had about two and a half years under my my belt now I've been teaching five years and I've also moved classrooms twice since then so I figured this was a really good time to sit down and film it because I kind of went through everything I have in my room and I was like what am I still using now that I've moved classrooms twice and I've changed grade levels what are the things in my classroom that I would still say like yes this was a great purchase and I still use this on the regular per se um because I feel like that's valuable if some things work some years and some things work other years and they're you're always going to have objects like that and items that you purchase in ways you organize that change year to year but these are some of the things that I have used no matter what classroom I've taught in and I've taught in three and no matter what grade level and I've now taught two different grade levels so without further Ado let's jump in I'm going to take you around my classroom it's currently in um summer mode so the desks are pushed aside the chairs are pushed aside there's stuff all over the counters um so it's not like set up but I'm still gonna walk through and show you some of those must-have items if you're looking to buy something for your classroom and I will say before I get started a lot of these things are linked in my Amazon storefront under classroom setup and teaching must-haves so I'll mention that as I go through specific items as well but if you're looking for a longer list or you're like what else could I buy for my classroom my Amazon storefront is always listed in the description box for my videos so you can go check out some of the other things I have in my room all right let's get started all right first up on my list are these black paper drawers they are regular Sterilite drawers I'm pretty sure they're the 12 inch by 12 inch though and I'll show you why that size is important I labeled these with my Cricut before my very first year teaching it's where I put all my weekly copies when I'm planning out my week I usually do it on Fridays I'll put all my copies in the drawers for the week I've shared some information about this on my Instagram on how I organize papers um but I sort my copies in here and right now they're empty but the reason the 12 by 12 is important is because I stagger stack everything so for example let me grab some papers so I can like demonstrate okay summer classroom is real I don't have very many papers out and about here we go here's the Bonnie's paper so if I wanted to use this for reading I would stack it in my drawer like this and then let's say I wanted to use this for like reading small group or something and it was a copy I can set it the opposite direction if you get like the eight and a half by eleven or like the standard size drawers you can't stagger stack it like that because they won't be widened so that's why I love I'm pretty sure it's 12 inch by 12 inch um I could be wrong but it's the wide version that's like a big Square I have two of them let me take these out so I don't lose these things in the store forever I have two of them right here that I use for my weekly copies and then my extras and then I also have one set over on my window ledge kind of where I was talking to you guys earlier and I just use that to keep extra notebook paper in for my students it's like their little paper drawer that they can go to so this is definitely a must-have I've used it all five years keeps me organized keeps me sane but make sure you get the wide version of the drawers all right my next classroom must-have is actually a Target dollar spot find I try not to buy a lot of things from the dollar spot but I do love to stock up on these paper trays I use one of them for my turn-in tray the light pink one because light pink is my favorite color and I use the turn and tray often so that one sits on my counter on the other side of the room I have one up on my counter over here that I use for my colored pencil sharpener so my handheld sharpeners so they can sharpen their pencils over the bucket and then we can just empty the shavings out and then the rest of them I usually keep here and I know you might be thinking like they're empty so why is this one of your must-haves well I use these anytime I have supplies that I want to pass out they are the best for like markers colored pencils if you're doing Valentine's stickers and they're like decorating their bags or any kind of Supply that you need your table group to use I love these and then here's why the best part about them is they're not very deep they're pretty um shallow I use these for manipulatives too like inch tiles and place value tiles because they're shallow so the kids can see in them I have these buckets from Michael's that I shared in my last must-have which I still use to hold right there lots and lots of manipulatives but I prefer to use these on the table groups because they're shallow so the students can see in them they don't have to grab the bucket and like tilt it to look inside so it's easier for them to share so I use these anytime we have a math manipulative that I'm putting out on the table just about and anytime we use markers or we're doing a craft this is what I use to put the supplies out on their tables and they are amazing so if you're looking for something from the target Dollar spot this is what I would recommend getting I have about probably seven or eight of them again I have two that have permanent homes and then the rest I just keep in here for whenever we're working on projects so that is definitely something that I think is worth investing in from the target Dollar spot I'm sure you can get these trays somewhere else too that's not the target dollar spot because they're just kind of like regular turn-in trays but these Target ones I think they're like three dollars and they're very sturdy and have held up because I've had these since I started teaching as well all right next up on my must-haves is the three-tiered rolling cart you can get these on Amazon but mine are from Michael's I have two of them actually I think the other one's right behind me how convenient I have this one and this one I use them for two different purposes first off I love that you can roll them and move them around which means you can move them out of the way if you need to this one is my small group cart I have a whole reel on Instagram where I like walk you through what my small group cart looked like when I taught first grade because I feel like I used it more in first grade than I did in third grade but third grade I still like having this next to me for the supplies on the top shelf I keep all of my whiteboards for students so if I'm teaching something in small groups and they need a whiteboard I just pass those out real quick and then on the middle shelf I try to keep like curriculum things or decodable readers that we're going to be working on so right now it's just like my curriculum readers which isn't very fun but when I taught first grade it would always have like a decodable texture story here like the passage that we were working on with the phonic skill then the bottom is the goodies like fun shell if I have the little eyeballs they can use when they're reading I have witch's fingers and I have highlighters and like these little things from the Dollar Tree where you can like put them over a word or a line and it's very dusty and focus on it um and then dice in case I'm playing games all kinds of things so that's kind of what my small group cart looks like the other one um and I've had this one since I think I got that my second year teaching and then this one I've had all the way since before I even started my first year and I really need to clean it because this one is Dusty but I use this one for my students take home folders are always right here and then I used to have my students turn in their homework here at my old school so I don't use the homework tray as much this year because we grade our homework in class and then they put it in the turn-in tray but I still use the folders so every Monday when I want my kids to turn in their Friday folders I'll set this kind of out in front of the doorway over here so when they come in they remember oh that's part of my Monday routine is I put my folder in there and then this is so nice because when I'm working on their folders and doing like their behavior or their AR points in their folders I just wheel this cart over to my desk and the folders are here I usually keep extras in the bottom of like their behavior charts AR charts so when a kid loses it or leaves it at home or you know I or I get a new student I'm like okay here's an extra one and I can just slide it into a folder so I definitely like these three tier carts there's lots and lots of ways that you can use them but again my favorite is that you can roll it easily so I can roll this out on Mondays when then you turn their folder in and then when it's not Mondays it's usually sitting right there I'll roll it away and then I roll it to my desk on Thursday to do my folders for Friday so these rolling carts they're really easy to put together they come in lots of different colors just cut it stuck on my skort um but I would definitely recommend investing like getting one think about how you're going to use it first of course um but I definitely think this is a purchase that's worth it because I use these every single year all right my next teacher must have is dry erase sleeves I keep them in this little Supply area with these Hobby Lobby baskets but I have so many dry erase sleeves so many um I'm sure you've seen these before you just slide the paper in and then they can use a dry erase marker on it and it turns any worksheet into something that's interactive and you don't have to make multiple copies of it so you can save copies from year to year I use these all the time in my first grade small groups all the time we would Circle phonics patterns we would write words on them I mean like all the time um and then I do use them in third grade as well maybe not as much as I did in first grade but there's always like a reason to have one of those on Deck I also use one for like my own personal small group schedule so at my small group table I have my schedule of groups and my list of groups in here for the whole week like listed out that way once I finish day one I can cross it out and then at the end of the week I like wipe it off so it helps keep me on track and on schedule I have a lot of student white boards too a lot of student white boards and I keep those in here too but my students all have one in their desk so they can use that at any time during a lesson but these are great for like different activities task cards things like that that I want the students to practice so I would definitely recommend investing in like one pack of these before your first year teaching or if it's not your first year and you just don't have them just buy a pack they're not that expensive from Amazon and I use them for a lot of things I also use these for my house points my schools as a house system and so I have them hanging in the front of my room with our house logos on it so if a student gets a house point they can put the tally on there with dry erase marker and then we use Class Dojo to like keep track of all our points so at the end of the week I add all of the tallies that are on the dry erase sleeve for their house to their Dojo house if that makes sense so I found that was like an easy way to do the house points for my classroom so if you have like a house system at your school or even table group points it's a great way to have something that's like dry over Ace but not take up whiteboard space because I know whiteboard space is like Precious so you can hang those with a command hook anywhere in your room and do that for table points or house points or something like that okay you're gonna have to forgive my calendar because it still says may it's June and when you're watching this it's probably July don't worry I'll get it updated before school starts but my next teacher must have lives in my little teaching or lives on my little teaching shelf that I have right here so my smart board is right here in my classroom this is like where I do a lot of my teaching from when I'm using the board and so my next must-have is a wireless mouse that you can use on your smart board um I've had a couple different ones one of them was just David's that he had that was left over and was actually broken and then this one was in my new classroom but I think getting a wireless mouse is a great investment because I love being able to control my smart board from here obviously you need some kind of mouse so you can you know manipulate but you could get a corded one because I'm right here but what I like to do with this one usually it actually doesn't live up here it'll be up here for a while and then I take it to my small group table so when I'm at a small group table with other students if I need to pull something up I can if I'm here teaching a small group and I want to put up a timer that says there's 10 minutes left so my students who are working independently know that I can if I need to adjust some background music maybe we're listening to instrumental and I need to change the volume I can do anything I need to do from my small group table even though I'm not in front of the smart board so a wireless mouse 10 out of 10 would recommend and I also have this keyboard so a wireless keyboard is a great addition as well to kind of pair with the mouse to keep on your teaching station so you can type it just makes it easy for me to teach from here with the document camera and not have to be in front of the board all the time if I'm manipulating a worksheet or something like that so a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard are great Investments especially if you have a smart board device in your classroom because I have used these in all of my classrooms I've used a wireless mouse and keyboard all right my next classroom must-have is a good pencil sharpener forgive me that I can't like hold it up and be Vanna White for this whole clip but it is plugged in oh there we go I can stretch the cord a little bit further than I thought a quality pencil sharpener will save your life I had a crappy one my first year and a half teaching and then um I finally use instructional money to buy a nicer one oh my gosh I don't let students use it this is just for me to sharpen students pencils but if you have a pencil sharpener and you're like it works okay I don't want to buy a new one but it's not that great buy a good one this is the exacto brand I don't think they have this exact kind on Amazon anymore but I've linked like the similar I think they've changed the model up a little bit but I've linked the I'm pretty sure it's exacto on my storefront but a good pencil sharpener will literally change your life I'm telling you like and then when I left Alabama I didn't have that pencil sharpener I had to leave it because I used school money and some wonderful person bought me the pencil sharpener from my Amazon wishlist and I was so grateful forever grateful and this is the same one if you take care of it it lasts I use the sharpener and I also have select students that I let use it in the afternoons when we're awaiting dismissal to sharpen um and then during the day I tuck it back here behind this paper drawer that I was talking about earlier I tuck it way back there so students can't use it and they like literally can't get to it unless they like climb on the counters and it's really obvious that they're trying to sharpen their pencil when they're not supposed to be sharpening their pencil so that's where I hide it after I have sharpened pencils all right and the final must-have for today's video are student mailboxes Um this can come in of a variety of shapes and sizes mine is massive this is a massive student mailbox thing it's made with like that particle board wood um it is very sturdy very heavy duty and I got it before my first year teaching so it's lasted there's nothing that's really broken I've moved it to two different classrooms so I'm really grateful for that um this year I added the numbers on the trays using binder clips and then I cricketed the numbers on and that was a smart decision very smart in years past I put like stickers on the outside um and that worked fine too but they would peel off but this is like now now I feel like my mailboxes are into Prime because like of the numbers but anyways when I first got this my first year I had no idea where I was going to teach how long I was going to teach how many students I was going to have so I ordered this massive one so I'd have lots of spaces as you can see right now I have well you might not be able to see but I have 24 spaces that doesn't include the bottom three and it doesn't include this whole shelf so I have eight on each so eight times four would be 32. I have enough for 32 students I have the extra one stacked down here and I use this side just for extra supplies I've got sticky notes highlighters index cards so if you buy like a big heavy duty one and you don't use all of the the slots that's fine um but you don't have to buy one that's this big and you don't even have to buy one that's like particle board wood they sell a lot that are cardboard and when I interned my internship teacher had blue ones that were made out of like sturdy cardboard um and they worked great but this is how I like file all my student work that needs to go home in their Friday folders and then I had a parent volunteer this last year come in and stuff the folders and when I was in first grade at other schools my kids would come to the mailboxes take their papers out and then they would put it in their folder on their own so again this is the system that works for me I have used this all five years of teaching Some people prefer to use like a big milk crate and just do files for student work and I have that for like student documents but for student work I prefer the mailboxes because I involved my first four years I involved the students in actually taking their things out of the mailbox um so for me when I was starting I was in first grade and I was like I just don't think a first grader can find their file in a milk crate as easy as they can find their shelf on a mailbox so I was like mailboxes and this one because this one was so huge and like so fancy it was definitely investment like a hundred dollars or something I don't even remember the price but it was a hundred dollars or more I'm not even kidding you but like I said you can find versions that aren't quite as sturdy that will still get the work done and will still be a wise investment because it will still last for a long time I just kind of went overboard and bought like the nicest fanciest one but it's one of those things that I did go overboard on my first year teaching but I don't regret because I really love this Nail Box and I love that I have like extra shelves and it's very versatile exactly what I need so this is my last like teaching must-have all right so that is it for my teaching must-haves things you need for your classroom part two um I hope those were helpful for you if there's anything that you have in your classroom that you're like I have used this since I started teaching please drop it in the comments below we can keep a running list going in the comments but again these are things that I felt like have been a great investment I've used for multiple years have helped me stay organized just great things to have in your classroom and again make sure you check out part one of this video or part one the the original of this video because I share five other things that I also still use um so I will again I've linked that up in the cards for you guys so you can go check that out but thank you guys so much for watching I hope this video was helpful if you liked it please give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to my channel I have lots of teaching content that I put out teacher Vlogs tip videos just fun lifestyle Vlogs and I'd love to have you guys join thank you guys so much for watching and as always I'll see you in the next one [Music] thank you

Channel: Mrs. Katie in Elementary

Views: 25,220

Keywords: Classroom Must Haves, Intro and Outro, Graphics, Sound Effects

Id: zbzqvudUt1M

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023