TOP 5 CLASSROOM MUST HAVES | Classroom Organization and Classroom Management

[Music] hey everyone welcome to my channel my name is katie and i am a third year first grade teacher and i am so glad that you're here today i'm going to be sharing my top five classroom must-haves that i use almost every single day and that i could not live without in my classroom when i first started teaching my classroom felt like completely empty but now after a couple of years of experience i've really figured out the things that i like having in my classroom and then the things that i don't use as much as i thought i would so today i'm going to share the top five things that i personally like and that you might want to try out for your classroom [Music] the first must-have for my classroom is my wireless doorbell i bought this when i first started teaching so my first year teaching i had it in my classroom and i really only used it for the cutesy songs to clean up during our center rotations but this year my third year teaching because of the covet situation and having to wear masks i switched to using it as my attention grabber throughout the entire day and let me tell you i will never go back this little tool is such a voice saver i keep it on my lanyard all day in a hand sanitizer container and then i have the receiver plugged in under the counter over here at the entrance to my room where it can be heard in every space in the room so if we're doing a turning talk at the calendar board or at the smart board all i have to do is click on the doorbell and they know to turn around and lock eyes with me and get quiet real quick it is such a time saver i love it so much let me show you what it looks like where it's plugged in all right so the button is on my lanyard and then the receiver i plug in down here and if i ever needed to change the tone i would just have to come down here and fix it but i keep it as the same classic tone just all year round because it's short and sweet and to the point the wireless doorbell that i have is from amazon and it's the same one that you see teachers that have all over instagram it's great and i've never had any trouble with it my second must-have are these awesome buckets that are from michaels i have them in multiple different colors i've got some dark blue some teal and some pink because every year around summer time they come out with different colors and when i walk in i'm like yep i need some more of those so i mostly use the buckets to hold math games because our math curriculum has a lot of different games that their students will play throughout the unit so i'll take each bucket and place the materials for a specific game inside that way when it's clean up time i just put the bucket on the back table and the students can put their materials in the bucket and it's really easy to pass out and just kind of have a running little display of all of the games for our unit it also makes it easier for me to visually see what the students are working on and to say hey can you grab that bucket let's practice this game together if i needed to for intervention you can also use dry erase marker on the front of it now if the students touch it and rub it it will come off a little bit but if you just needed to quickly label it for a day for an activity that would be an easy way to label the buckets so let me show you some examples of what's inside my buckets now all right so here's what my michael's buckets look like right now in this one i have um some pennies and tin frame cards we were working on they had to draw a number and then build it on the 10 frames in my second one i have all of our clocks because in this unit we've been doing a lot of work with clocks in a whole group and so when i need to give those out in a whole group i just grab the bucket and go my next one it's kind of a hodgepodge of a couple different things right now i really need to clean it out but you can see that we had a game going with some dot cards and cubes and then my last one has my game that i use with my el students so number recognition game i keep this one out all the time for my el students who are just learning english and they've got their board and then their cards are in here as well so anytime i need to do that during intervention i just send them to come grab the game and they're good to go clearly i have a lot of them i've got a couple stacked right here and then i even have some in my back counter too so you can never have too many of these buckets i find uses for them all the time and again they are from michaels and they're usually on sale every once in a while and they definitely have a lot of them in store during the summer time my third must-have item are the clear scrapbook cases that are also from michaels [Music] i use these to hold all of the materials that we use in our math curriculum for the games so when they're not in the buckets that i just showed you earlier they're all stored in a scrapbook case that's labeled by unit then on the top of the case i have a little table of contents that tells me what's inside that bucket that i would need for this specific unit [Music] this was a huge project i did after my first year of teaching when i was more comfortable with the math curriculum because when i first got in my classroom all of the cards and the games and the activities that are inside this box were just in one giant bucket like a big clear box and they weren't organized by units so i would have to go through the entire bucket every time we learned a new game and i just knew that i needed something to use to organize it to make it easier for me to access let me give you a little mini tour of the scrapbook case on the inside okay again this is where i store all my scrapbook cases they fit perfectly on my shelf and then this one over here is just the unit one example so i got these labels and i made those using some graphics and some fun fonts um and then i've made a table of contents for each one that tells the games that are inside and the cards and then inside each case i just have them sorted with ziploc baggies that are labeled because these are the ziplock bags that i then transfer into the michael's buckets when we're playing the game so here's some of the cards and then the game boards i'll keep either in plastic sheet protectors or in some gallon-sized bags as well but this keeps it way more organized and then i know okay we're in unit one here are all the supplies we need for our unit one game i also keep my current unit over here on the other side of my classroom so that's where i store them all the time and then when we're in a specific unit like right now we're in unit seven i move it over here onto this shelf that way it's closer to my buckets and it's out and easy for me to access without having to go in the big cabinet every time classroom must have number four are sit spots my first year teaching i spent a good bit of money on this big rug of the united states that i put all over in this area for my kids to sit on and then just didn't like it and realized that they just rolled around on the rug and they didn't have a designated spot to sit on so my second year i ordered these from amazon and i will never go back to using the rug again these just really help kids have a defined space when they're sitting on the carpet for whole group and it's really easy to redirect and say hey get on your spot or hey make sure that you're on your spot and not in somebody else's and i just love that so much it has made my life so much easier so i would definitely recommend that you get some sit spots there are lots of different varieties on amazon but i'll link the ones that i have in the description box below teacher must have number five is the teacher toolbox now i know before i started teaching i saw these all over instagram and i was like oh i just have to have one because everyone on instagram has one so if that's what you're thinking let me confirm what you're thinking and say yes you do need one because this gives me a space to put all of those little odds and ends that would be all over my classroom otherwise there's just a place to store tape and index cards and sticky notes and it's just a great go-to place to find anything that i might need i am an organized type person so it would drive me crazy if all of the things inside my toolbox were in my desk or in different boxes and all over the place that would just be way too much for me so i love having the toolbox because it keeps it all in one spot i know amazon has these tool boxes so i will link a similar one in the description below and the labels that i used are from teach create motivate on teachers pay teachers but there are so many different kinds so you can get on and find one that matches your theme i just like this one because it was bright colors and it would just always be cute and match so i keep it right here on my desk which is a little messy with all my notes up here but it's just in a very good place where i can keep everything organized you can kind of see what's inside it fits sharpie markers and staples which i might need to refill soon push pins sticky notes also need to refill i love this drawer i got my washi tapes in one spot there's even a miscellaneous drawer so everything has a place and oh my goodness it's so dusty on top that's gross so i definitely need to dust it off but i love my teacher toolbox and 10 out of 10 would totally recommend that you get one for your classroom those are my top five must-haves in my classroom that i have just loved since purchasing and use often hopefully this gave you a couple of ideas for your classroom and if you're a teacher and you have one of these must-haves in your classroom let me know which must-have we share also if there's anything that you really like that's not on my list please comment it below because i'm always looking to try new things in my room thanks so much for tuning in i post a new video every week so i hope you'll click like and subscribe below and join me for my next one see y'all later

Channel: Mrs. Allain in Elementary

Views: 36,965

Rating: 4.9227052 out of 5

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

Id: oKE0kLRoFu8

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021