What are some of your favorite classroom “must haves”? Join up with Rachelle at Life is Sweet in Kindergarten and share your Top 5 things you just can’t live without.
Here are my Top 5 Teacher Must Haves….
1. Seat Sacks–I love having the extra storage right on the back of my kiddos’ chairs. Seat sacks (or chair pockets) are a great place to keep notebooks, journals, folders, and any other small items you want to be handy to your students. If you sew, or know someone crafty, you can make your own and probably save some money!
2. Plastic tubs, trays, and boxes–I LOVE organizing and for some reason organizing in brightly colored plastic bins makes me sooooo happy. The Dollar Tree is one of my favorite places to find all kinds of plastic boxes and bins, along with (of course!) the Dollar Spot at Target.
3. Any CD by Dr. Jean–Not only do teachers love Dr. Jean, but kids adore her music too. It’s fun and upbeat and many of her songs cover basic skills such as letter sounds, counting, rhyming, etc. She does have some “just for fun” silly songs too. Her CD’s are always great for a rainy day or for that occasional brain break in between lessons.
4. Dry Erase Sleeves–I love dry erase markers and am so thankful that someone invented the dry erase board! I mean, really….what a great idea!!! With dry erase sleeves you can take any printed page and turn it into a practice page for your kiddos. Simply slide your printed page into a sleeve….then your kiddos can complete the page using a dry erase marker. When finished, they simply erase. I used these a lot last year for early finishers and it worked really well. A couple of weeks ago the Dollar Spot at Target had these for (gasp!)….a dollar! You can’t beat that!!!!
5. Student mailboxes–Having a way to organize and keep up with student work is an absolute must. This will be the first year I’ve used the Classroom Keepers mailbox system (shown below). I’ll let you know how it holds up….fingers crossed. My last set of mailboxes lasted for 7 years and probably would have lasted several more if there hadn’t been a leak in my classroom ceiling. Unfortunately, cardboard mailboxes and water just don’t do well together.
So there are 5 of my Teacher Must Haves. Be sure to join the linky party and share yours!
I love Dr. Jean's CDs as well! I won one in a giveaway and want to buy her whole collection now! I've never heard of the dry erase sleeves. I'll have to go on the hunt for some. Your blog is very cute! 😀
Sarah
Miss A's Kindergarten
Thanks so much for adding your blog at Kindergarten Network. I also added it on my Facebook page, as well.
I'm your newest follower!
Blessings,
Marlana
Lil' Country Kindergarten
Kindergarten Network
I love student mailboxes too! They make life SO MUCH easier! I hope I have room for them in my classroom this year!
☼ Kate
To The Square Inch
Found your blog on the newbie blog hop. I hope I'm able to use mailboxes this year for my Kinders. Glad to be a new follower. 🙂
Catherine
Kinder Cuties
I haven't used mailboxes before and am considering it! I see it on lots of the Top 5 lists! Glad I found you and look forward to following you!
Julie
msshopesclass.blogspot.com/