2 Simple Tips for Helping Young Students Learn to Organize Desk Supplies

The one thing that really saves my sanity with my own organization is when I am not distracted by my students being unorganized! 

How many times have you heard this? 

When we are ready to get started on something that involves the students taking out a supply of some kind, I like them to be able to do so quickly and quietly, so we can get the show on the road. Things falling out of desks, supplies getting lost, folders getting ripped and mangled and paper/snack wrapper stuffing are a few frustrations we can all do without. I hope these tips can help your class be more organized!

Spending some time to teach the class to do these two simple things may help those of you who have an issue with desk-cluttering, pencil- fumbling students! 

Because we have desks, not tables, I require that my students keep one, what we call a READY PENCIL, in the side of their desk. The eraser side needs to be showing out and the pencil pushed in against the edge of the desk. That way it won't roll out. When it is time to take out our most frequently used supply, we just grab it out from the corner. It does not involve dragging out the entire noisy pencil box. This one simple trick has saved so much time!

Notice that the books, folders and notebooks above are all nicely stacked. This too was taught and reinforced daily for the first month of school. We divide our desk into two sections. The opposite side is for all other supplies like crayons, glue and pencil boxes.

The students have done a great job keeping their desks tidy without reminders. They still look the same after nearly two months in school. All because we took that extra time to think about and practice organization. I hope they carry these tricks with them through the grades.

To encourage neatness and organization, consider having the desk fairy visit and reward students with a special treat on (or in) their desk!

 I just had to use these cute little fairies from my friend Jen over at Teaching in the Tongass!
 You can grab a copy of the desk fairy notes {here} if you like!

If you have a great idea for organizing, we'd love to hear from you in the comments section.

If you enjoy our monthly tips and tricks, a great way you can keep in touch with the Weekend Warriors is through our Pinterest Board!

 We have quite a collection of awesome ideas to share so Pin away!

 Be sure to follow us there so you don't miss a thing!

This is a great place to come together and share ideas!
 If you have a great tip for organizing, we'd love to hear from you in the comments section. 

Second Grade Collaborative Pinterest Board

Hello Second Grade Teacher Friends! I'd love to have you come join me on Pinterest as contributors in a super sweet new collaborative board just for second grade sweetness! Pin your Common Core products, projects, videos, blog photos and more! It will be the perfect place for visitors to find all sorts of creative second grade stuff for their classroom! 

Click on the picture to see the new board!

 I hope to have it fill up very quickly!

Graphics by Pink Cat Studio         Fonts by Kimberly Geswein

If you want in on the fun, just email me and I'll add you!

Look for a notification from Pinterest. Just hit ACCEPT and you can start Pinning away!

 It's that easy!

Feel free to use the image with credits!

Have a super sweet day!

Halloween Pinterest Finds!

It's almost here! Are you ready and rested up for a crazy week of spooktacular fun? My room parents this year are a creative and talented bunch! They found all of the neat treats and crafts for our Halloween party on Pinterest of course! Here is a cute idea for a healthy snack! We are serving up these ghost bananas and pumpkin oranges! How cute are they?

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I wish I could find an exact picture for you, but the children are making hand print spiders in a web on a ceramic tile. It looks something like this:

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 All of the tile was donated by our local Home Depot!

This cute door decoration was also a Pinterest find! I can't wait to see how our door turns out!

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I've been busy on Pinterest myself lately pinning lots of cute clip art sets, fun classroom printables, freebies, videos and activities, crafts, treat bag ideas, unique home decor items, beautiful makeup and more!

My favorite finds are an animated version of Boris and Bella and an amazing video of a home with a light show you just have to see! 

If you are still searching for ideas for the big day, you may get some great ideas for your classroom on Pinterest too. You can see my board at  http://www.pinterest.com/lessoncafe/! 

Hurray for Columbus Day and a Winner!

I've been busy planning for a day of thematic lessons all about Columbus! It's one of my favorite themes and it transitions us into our next unit on map reading skills perfectly! 

I just created a new Columbus Day Pinterest board you might want to check out for some cute project ideas, special treats, free printables and units on TPT!

 Wow! I just noticed that I have a repin from Erin Condren! What an honor! 

My little explorers will be making this craft from A Cupcake for the Teacher!

I love that this includes printables, organizers and fun word work activities too. There is also a writing page for the kiddos to tell what they learned about Christopher!

Aren't these snacks adorable? Oh, if I had more time...

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I retyped a poem to add to our poetry binders. 

You can download it from my Dropbox here.

And now for the winner of the Starbucks egift card...

Congratulations to Karen, comment number 2!

Karen, check your email! Something yummy is on the way! :)

New Frames and Borders and a Pinterest Blog Hop

K.I.S.S. Keep it Simple Seller!That's been my motto lately. I have been trying to use simple, easy to read fonts and borders and frames especially when I want to draw attention to the text or cute clip art on the page. This is especially true for items created for the little ones because too much on a page can be overwhelming for them to look at. 

Often, I am searching for a cute frame or some borders that I can use to highlight my items but without distracting from the content on the page. I could not find exactly what I needed for my latest project, so I made my own! 

I call them Simply Sweet!

If you like them and think they might be just the thing you need for your creations, you can get them at my store on sale today! Click on the picture to take you to this item.

I'm pretty sure by now you've heard that the big TPT sale starts today!

Throughout the year, I have collected Pins of items that I have on my wishlist! I'm heading back to Pinterest today to see what I might have missed!

Come join in the fun with a Pinterest for Teachers Blog Hop! Enter your link and copy and paste the code into your blog to keep it going! :)

Monday Made it! Custom Facebook Badges for Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Well, what do you think? My badges are finished!I couldn't resist adding a little bunting to the new ones!

I made them like I would any cover page! It was my Monday Made it! Link up and show us what you've been up to!

There's still time to enter the giveaway to win a custom badge of your own! Click on the photo above to see my Facebook page. 

I promised a tutorial for creating your own buttons, but then discovered the talented Ashley Hughes already posted a video to show you exactly what to do! Head on over to her awesome blog to check it out!

 The School Supply Addict

What other links would be helpful to followers on a Facebook page? Hmmm....this could be fun!

Custom Pinterest Button For Facebook Giveaway

It's giveaway time and time to jazz up your Facebook page with a custom Pinterest button designed by me! It's gotta be cute and match your page theme right?

The hardest part to adding a button for your Pinterest boards is creating an eye-catching graphic that is precisely the right size and doesn't lose clarity. No worries, I'll make one for you! The winner will get to select the design elements including a background, color scheme and another graphic from my collection. We will work together via email to get the design that you love and I will send you the image to upload through Woobox. Installation is not included :), but I am working on an easy-to-follow tutorial. Three or four clicks and it will be done!

In addition to this little old blog and loads of other social media, I also have a fairly new Facebook page. All you have to do to enter to win is to Like my Facebook Page! The winners will be announced next week. Use the rafflecopter below to submit your entry!



a Rafflecopter giveaway Hope to see you on Facebook!