One of the biggest things I learned in my first year teaching Senior Infants was how important organisation is. My desk was almost exclusively used for holding piles of 'stuff'. From finished work to worksheets we'd yet to do, random items that I needed to tidy away to forms for school trips. Tidying my desk was a constant item on my to-do list and every knock on the door, where someone would hand me something new, would just add to the growing mountain!
Not having a proper system for things caused extra work/stress for me and made it more likely for the children to add to the mountain, as they'd just leave more and more things on my desk. Organisation is also a huge part of classroom management, the classroom is a much more efficient and calm space if children know where everything goes and can help to keep it tidy.
It's particularly hard in your first year, as you can't know at the start of the year what you'll need! By June I had figured out what was missing from my classroom and was adamant that for the next school year, there'd be "a place for everything, everything in its place".”
Here's my list of everything I have in place to help with the organisation in my infant classroom!
Basket for children to put in their 'finished work'
All worksheets go in here. I try to file them away into a box file at the end of each day.
Caddies for holding table materials
I don't like having these on the children's tables if not needed. The caddies hold glue sticks, scissors, whiteboards, whiteboard markers and pencils.
Box for holding miscellaneous bits that need to be sorted away
This is an essential! Both you and the children will find random things that you're not sure what they are or where they go. All of these things go into this box and I try to go through it each week.
Drawers labelled Monday-Friday
Worksheets, resources etc. for the days go into these drawers.
Box file for holding children's notes etc. to go home
I find this really helpful for making sure that absent children get any forms, notes, or letters for home they might have missed out on. The box file has a section for each child and it's really easy to pop in anything they've missed to mind until they're back in.
Box file for holding children's assessments/work to go home
This is the same idea as above. Any work they do goes into their section in the box file. At the end of each month, I send home each child's bundle of work.
Paper trays
'To file' x1
'To hand out' x1
Tidy tubs for each table
Children take out their tidy tubs when we're doing any cutting and all the scraps go into their tub.
Basket for homework folders
Mine hand their folders up each Friday. It's very handy having a big basket for them to leave their folders in.
Corkboard
I hung up a small corkboard/whiteboard for me to pin any important notes, forms etc. and write up any important reminders.
Baskets for holding each table's books/copies
File holders for holding teacher books (1 per subject)
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