Organizing Supplies in Kindergarten

I have a teacher pro-tip for you, today! The end of the year, or early on in your summer vacation, is the perfect time for a brief reflection time. Take a few minutes to sit and jot down the areas of your room this year that flowed well, and the parts that felt like chaos. Those chaotic pieces can be resolved, but it won’t happen by accident! You must make a plan before the school year starts about how you will fix the areas that did not run smoothly. Today, I am sharing ideas on how to tighten up the organization of your classroom supplies. If this is an area that felt a little crazy to you in years past, this post is for you!

Student-Centered Classrooms

If we’re talking about classroom supplies, a natural conversation to have is about student-centered classrooms. What is a student centered classroom, and why are they important?

A student-centered classroom is a classroom designed with student use in mind. Classroom libraries are organized in a way that is easy for students to keep up with. Centers are easy for students to access. Supplies are within reach of little hands. There is little in your room that students don’t have access to. If they need it, they can get it themselves.

Student-centered classrooms are considered ‘best practice’ because they foster student independence, and create more teaching time for you! If a student needs to swap out a broken pencil, it makes no sense for you to stop teaching and get a new pencil for them, right? In fact, few teachers would even consider keeping sharpened pencils out of their students’ reach. It would create too many interruptions. The more you extend this thinking throughout your room, the more you free up your time and build a classroom full of responsible students!

How to Create a Student-Centered Room

The important thing to remember about student-centered classrooms is that they require a lot of clear expectations, as well as intention set-up. Three main things to do when creating a student centered room are:

Label all supplies.

In kindergarten, this means labeling supplies with both pictures and words. This helps your students access supplies at all parts of the year, no matter where they are in their literacy growth. Do you have all of your math centers in one place for students to pull out themselves? Label them with numbers, so it’s easy for students to put them back in order. Excess school supplies must be labeled so students can find what they need easily if they need a replacement. Label it all! This benefits your students greatly, but also makes it easy for you to grab baskets of supplies quickly while you’re teaching!

Put supplies within reach.

A student-centered classroom means that students can independently find what they need. If a student needs a pair of scissors, or a glue stick, the idea is that you do NOT have to stop what you’re doing and pull a basket off of a high shelf for them. That creates hundreds of mini-interruptions throughout the year that distract you from the teaching you’re doing in the present moment. Those little interruptions add up!

Create parameters around everything.

I have to add that a student-centered classroom does *not* mean a free-for-all. When students access supplies, clear parameters are a must. What times of day should students plan to get supplies? How should they ask to get new supplies? How do they know that they need a replacement supply? Plan to teach your expectations within the first weeks of the year. Every area of your room that students access independently will need a mini-lesson to go with it. Yes, this is a lot to work in during the first few weeks. But, it prevents you from having to do everything yourself in your room, which is more than worth it!

The First 25 Days of K

Are you looking for more ideas on how to set up your room this year? The First 25 Days of K course is opening for enrollment! Join the waitlist now to get notifications when the course is open again. The First 25 Days of K is a course designed to support kindergarten teachers through the first 25 days of the year. These days are the most critical! The course covers all of the classroom set-up and management tips you need to have a great back to school season! SIGN UP HERE.