Save time and effort with these classroom organization ideas. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have an organized class with resources in its place and effortless tidying up after a teaching day. Some items you have at home, and many you’ll find in the dollar store.
We’ve researched the best organization ideas for teachers, hacks students will love and help store resources in their designated places. We’ve included organization hacks and tips for every day of the school week, suggestions to quickly put things away, keep the classroom organized, store learner materials, teaching resources, and more. You’ll love these innovative solutions, and feel free to share your unique tips and hacks with our readers.
Favorite Classroom Organization Ideas For An Organized Classroom
Organize Anchor Charts
A laundry basket is a perfect size for storing anchor charts, large and small. Labeling each chart helps to identify them quickly. The teacher cleverly hid the anchor charts basket out of sight, behind the whiteboard.
Organized Classroom Placemats
I absolutely love this idea; it’s one of the best organization hacks! These erase placemats are always available for kids to write and draw on and erase when down. Save time and paper with this fantastic idea; the teacher won’t need to hand them out – one less item on a teacher’s endless to-do list.
DIY First-Aid Kit
A neatly painted basket with the red cross sign functions well as a DIY first-aid kit. Fill the basket with standard first-aid supplies like antibacterial bandages, cloth gauze pads, antibiotic ointment, cloth tape, children’s pain and fever meds, and first-aid instruments.
Survival Kit For Teachers
A Caboodle has all the extra storage space to create a unique survival kit for any grade teacher to stay organized and at your best throughout the school day. Shaping young minds can be challenging, especially if the teacher is fighting a head cold, lacks coffee, or is just feeling poorly.
Stay perky and organized throughout the school year with the supplies in this survival kit; other teachers will envy you. Make sure you include personal items, essentials, eye drops, hand sanitizer, and pick-me-ups like instant coffee packs and chocolate.
Organization Hacks For Classroom Cabinets
Keeping their cabinets organized with storage containers is one of the best tips for teachers; it’s a game-changer to organize, manage, and keep an entire classroom organized. Inside cabinets, teachers can use various plastic containers, bins, and baskets for their teaching materials—store construction paper, colored papers, and extra copies of worksheets and lesson plans. The substitute teacher will thank you for making finding lesson materials and supplies so easy.
Storing Math Games On Towel Racks
All you need for this great hack are plastic bags, binder rings, and clips to store math games or other activity toys in separate plastic bags. Hang it on a towel rack. It’s no effort to throw pieces into a plastic bag when done and store them for next time. Parents will love this idea for toys and LEGO pieces at home.
Classroom Organization Tips For The Classroom Library
Book Bins Vs. Bookshelves
Using bookshelves is the traditional way of storing books in the library. However, book bins offer more flexibility. A teacher can organize the books in any order that works best for their classroom, alphabetical order, subject, or reading skills.
Reading Level Book Baskets
The teacher organized the classroom books according to reading level. After assessing the learner, the teacher attaches a clothespin to the right book basket. Kids have the freedom to select the book they want to read from that book basket; choosing the books can encourage learners to read.
Home Reading Folders
Folders are sturdier than Ziplock bags at protecting the books, letters, and reading questionnaires inside. Create colorfully front covers and close folders with Velcro strips preventing items from falling out.
Organized Classroom Library
Amazing! Use book spine labels to color-code each letter of the alphabet. The library books stay in alphabetical order because students have the additional color-coding to assist them when putting the books back.
DIY Library Pockets
Teachers who enjoy scrapbooking will love these DIY library pockets. Keep worksheets, comprehension questions, and other papers related to your library in these pockets. The library area stays tidy, and it’s easy to access for kids.
Classroom Organization Ideas For Student Materials
Store School Supplies In Mason Jars
Tie colorful ribbons around the mason jars, mark them and fill them with colorful supplies kids use throughout the week. The fun idea keeps track of pencils, markers, erasers, crayons, and paint kids use for drawing, writing, and student work. It’s a simple solution for staying organized and adding to the class decor.
Candy Jars For Colored Markers
Fun idea for classroom organization. The teachers used plastic candy jars bought at the dollar store and filled each with individually colored crayons or markers.
Classroom Organization Ideas For Art Supplies
The child-friendly art supplies stay organized with the baskets, bins, and containers with lids. Teachers can have a crate to stow spare pencils, crayons, markers, papers, glue, paints, paintbrushes, and even broken crayons. Add an area where students can display their art, and the classroom should stay organized.
Students Classroom Management
An excellent classroom organization system for classroom management! Organizing supplies with these colorful milk crates or bins and labeled folders is easy and fun. Make bins for extra copies, absent students, and students who finish early. Keep supplies organized the entire school year; students help themselves, and the classroom stays organized because everything has its place.
Organize Student Self-Storage
Self-storage is a brilliant idea for organizing the classroom and having middle and high school students routinely organize their desks. The milk crates are perfect if students share desks; there is a milk crate for each child. Students don’t pick up and move desks which saves the teacher time and effort; the teacher doesn’t have to move the desks back after each class. The room stays organized, and students have what they need within reach; no class disturbance in searching and fetching items they require.
Organization Space For Student White Boards
Excellent solution for storing learner whiteboards, erase markers, and erasers. Choose a colorful tote bag for each student’s whiteboard and resources. Hang the tote bags on hooks below a window or unused wall space in the classroom. You could add tabs with student names to specify individual usage.
Classroom Organization Tips For Classroom Supplies
Organizing School Electronics
Color coding electronics is the perfect solution to organize Chromebooks, devices, and other electronic equipment such as iPads. It keeps the classroom organized and helps to quickly identify the electronics within its storage container or charging station.Â
Classroom Organization For A Few Devices
Teachers who don’t have classroom iPads for all the students can stow the few they have in an inexpensive desk caddy. Place a power strip behind the caddy. Students plug the iPad in to ensure the devices are always fully charged when they are finished.
Organizing Ear Buds Effectively
A plastic bead box is extremely useful when storing earbuds. Number each section corresponding with the student number on the earbuds. Students can put them back in the appropriate place. If one is mislaid in the classroom, the teacher can quickly identify to whom it belongs.
Teacher Toolbox For Classroom Materials
Simplify your teaching life with a toolbox you’ve spray painted and added labels for quick identification. Choose a toolbox with large and small drawers to hold classroom materials and art supplies. The large drawers are for individual supplies to store pencils, colored markers, washi tape, sharpies, extra large binder clips, and post-it notes. The small drawers hold flash drives, staples, binder clips, magnets, sticky tack, push pins, rubber bands, book rings, and paper clips.
Filing Cabinet Organization Ideas
The teacher stapled color card-weight paper to one side of the hanging file folder. She used two sets of tabs, one set for classroom management and another for science topic tabs. Papers and pieces that didn’t fit a topic she added to a “Review Later” box.
Teacher Resource Books Organized
Separate the teacher resource books by topic; it will help the teacher find books quickly without trying to read each book’s spine on the shelf. By separating subject matters, you keep related resources together, and you don’t waste time searching for the book.
Classroom Organization Ideas Tracking Information
Student Information Clipboards
Color-code the cover sheets to quickly identify the student without looking at student names. The teacher cleverly used colored post-it notes for each subject and placed them under the assessment due dates. Attach to the clipboard a Ziplock bag with the student materials for assessment and hang the clipboard out of reach.
Organize 1st Grade Birthday Board
So cute! The teacher used gingerbread figures, painted them, and labeled each with the student’s name and day of birth. Sort students according to month and hang them on the birthday board.
Brag Tags Organization Ideas
Kids love to collect things! Collecting brag tags is one of the greatest organizational ideas for any teacher who believes classroom management is an important task. Stored in a plastic cabinet with storage drawers, the brag tags can be an incentive for anything from student behavior to student progress and academic goals. The tags hang on necklaces on a classroom display board.
Systematic Student Data Notebooks
Student data notebooks are an excellent alternative to student data forms, accordion folders, or a student data binder. Notebooks give students ownership and teach them self-evaluation skills. Setting goals and recording student progress are individual tasks students write in their notebooks.Â
Classroom Organization Ideas For An Organized Day
Sub Tub Organized For Substitute Teacher
Organize a sub tub in advance for the substitute teacher. Use book bins to hold marked file folders and lesson plans. Then you don’t need to worry about last-minute planning for that one day of school you are absent from.
Plan Lessons Every Week Of School
Planning your teaching week in advance is one of the most practical classroom organization tips. Label each drawer with a day of the week and decorate it with some washi tape.
Cute Containers For Tabletop Displays
The centerpiece is made with inexpensive plastic plates and containers glued to the plate. Each worktable has a display with everything the students need and is within reach. Supplies are always available because students can’t carry the containers to other room areas.
Organize Teacher Calendar
Teach from your calendar with this organization hack, from the daily schedule to weekly, monthly, and yearly. Use dot magnets to display and move the labels; you can also use a magnet schedule. It takes some effort to plan and organize, but it is a tremendous time-saver to stay organized every day of the school year – one of the most colorful organization ideas for a teacher.
Morning Cart Classroom Organization Ideas
Create morning routines with this morning sidekick, a simple rolling serving cart loaded with bins outside the classroom door. Students arrive at different times; it keeps the hustle-and-bustle outside the classroom. Use labels for everything students should pick up or turn in before entering the class. If you have items for specific students, use numbered labels.
Binder Clips Organization Hacks
If binder clips are one of your must-have teacher resources, you’ll love this organization hack. You’ll never search for a lost binder clip in a drawer again! Label the binder clip and clip it to a ruler. That’s it, so simple but highly effective.
Organizing Coats And Backpacks
Label each coat hook with the child’s number. Children will know which hook is for their stuff, and they won’t argue with each other. Neither will you have irate parents if kids accidentally take someone else’s coat or backpack that looks like theirs.
Task Boxes And Activity Sheets
The flexible photo keeper is the perfect holder for tasks; you could use it for activity sheets and even regular paper. Use a vinyl sticker to identify the tasks and keep them together in a bin.
What are your favorite classroom organization ideas and tips?