My Classroom Must-Haves Day 1

Weekend Warriors is here again - and this time with some of our classroom necessities.  I'm going to keep it simple today and stick with 3 of my absolute must-haves.  I am positive that I am not the only one who finds teaching without them nearly impossible.  So let's get right to it!

Oh, Post-Its...how I love you so!  I love the colors.  I love the different sizes.  Post-its and I go way back!  In the picture above you can see some of the ways I use them in my classroom.  I use them during guided reading with the students to go along with various lessons: finding sight words, monitoring comprehension, etc.  I use them to keep track of my student's reading levels in a file folder.  This is so easy to just open up and see my whole class at a glance.  I use them for anchor charts and I also use them in my planbook to remind me of meetings, assemblies, things to do, etc.  

I even use post-its on myself :)  Actually, the kids used them to label me when we were learning about labels in nonfiction texts.  

I am not the only who loves post-its.  This beautiful wall was at the Teachers Pay Teachers office in NYC with notes from the Las Vegas conference.  I'm pointing to the one I wrote.  

I think I should start buying stock in some of these things.  Ziploc bags - Yup, I have boxes and boxes! I organize all of my centers into Ziploc bags.  I use the small ones for smaller pieces and then I put that bag and the rest of the center materials into the gallon size bags including recording sheets and directions.  I ask parents for donations of Ziploc bags in the beginning of the year since we go through so many of them.  The other thing I love about storing centers this way is they easily fit into these plastic bins and I can see right away what I have in them.  Such a time saver and helps the kids stay organized too.  

And speaking of plastic bins or tubs or whatever you want to call them - that's my #3 must have for today.  This picture doesn't even do justice to the number of plastic organizing totes I have in my classroom.  

Every year I buy a few more.  I just wish it didn't cost so much money to be organized.  But it definitely is worth it.

Now check out my friends and what they find necessary to their day-to-day teaching.  You know you want to ;)

A Burst of First	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade	Creative Lesson Cafe	Sailing Into Second
Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Crayons and Whimsy	Primarily Speaking	Second Grade Perks
Lucky To Be In First	Saddle Up Second Grade	A Sunny Day In First Grade	The Tutu Teacher
First Grade Smiles

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