Follow-Up on Toy Organization

First off, I would like to say Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there, especially my own and my husband. Hope your day is great!

I have been busy since this post when I pleaded for help in organizing my son's toys! Of course, the house is still a far cry from perfect. But I have come up with a solution that works at least for now. Thanks to the suggestion of reader, Kristianne, I decided to begin by going through all the toys and organizing them into groups. Then I got the appropriate containers. 

These are shelves that my mom had given me that were up in the play room, but not really being used, so I decided they would work for now. The biggest problem I have is that L cannot reach the top shelf and there is really no reason for there to be so much room between sheves, but there is no way of adjusting them.

So, as you can see, that cleared up the mess that was by the chair and now I have moved the end table there.

You can kinda see the "parking lot" for some of the larger toys with wheels next to his tent.

 Here is how I set up the space for L to play his Vtech and when he's not using it, I store the chair up against the wall. 

 Moving on to the family room. Remember that huge tub that was there? Well, that is gone. In it's place is my new breakfast nook. Where did all those toys go, you ask?

The cabinets on either side of the fireplace were pretty much being used for junk, so they got cleaned out, thus making plenty of room for the extra toys. Also, they can't be seen, so if they aren't in the most organized shape, it's all good (as Pete the Cat would say).

It just took getting a little creative and actually getting to work sorting things. As I said, it could still look much better, but it is a major improvement from where we were. Thanks for the help, Kristianne.

I hope you are inspired to organize something in your homes now!

Toy Organizing HELP needed!!!

Ok guys, so I am very embarrassed to show these photos of my house, but I need help in figuring out a cheap way of organizing my son's toys. Keep in mind, I have been on Summer break for almost 2 weeks now. 

The main problem is, I cannot realistically expect him to clean up his toys if there is really no place to put them or any order to them. I need more storage. This was fine when he was crawling and couldn't get into things on his own, but now that he is all over the place, I really need to get this straightened out. 

Here is the current state of my living room:

 Here is the current storage in my living room:

 Here is my storage in the family room:

The containers are just too big and he never gets to the bottom to play with those toys. I am thinking some short shelves with some smaller containers on them. Please give me any ideas you have. I would also appreciate if you know anywhere cheap to get shelving/storage. I am planning to check Good Will and some yard sales. Oh, I am also looking for a child-size table and chairs as well.

HELP! Please leave any comments below.

Classroom Setup Progress

Been back to work for 2 weeks already, but I feel like I've barely been in the classroom with all the trainings and meetings. But here are some of the things I have gotten done in the room:

So this is one of my big goals from last year upon realizing I did not have nearly as many diverse materials in the classroom as I did diverse children. This social studies center is actually new and it came about after being given a pile of atlases and realizing I had no good place to put the globe. In the middle of the table is a local map that I printed that shows the school, the zoo, and the library and some parks.

Music center. Working on my goal of more interactive classroom, I decided to post some questions that will lead to discussion about the types of sounds different instruments make.

One of my passions! The science/discovery area. It is not finished yet, but here are some of the ways I have tried to make it more interactive. I love the title Exploration Station. It is so descriptive and just makes you want to play with and experiment with what's on the table. Cutie, our class pet the hermit crab will soon be on the table. Since the beginning of last year I have had the dream of having so many plants around the window that it looks like a jungle. Not sure if that is ever going to happen, but I do at least want to get a couple plants in here for the kids to water and take care of. Some other ideas for this area are colored sand to mix, slime to play with, nature items such as pine cones, leaves, twigs, rocks,etc. We will be changing it out at least once a week and we also have trays on the shelf across from this table for kids to do individual sensory activities.

Although it's not something I made, I would like to take credit for the idea of the mirror in the middle so kids can see what their face looks like when talking about feelings. I love this idea!

The start of my circle time area. Word wall all in one place together as opposed to all around the classroom like last year. I want to be able to refer to it easier at circle time and it is very close to writing area. Also, you will see no numbers on our calendar. We decided that concept is too advanced for preschool age and that we will just use the pictures which are photo of the school, home, and other things we might be doing on a random day. And you will see some of my target finds.

Being the good little Head Start employee I am, I incorporated one of their buzz words for the year. This is my Kindergarten Readiness bag. Inside you will find small group activities that deal with letters, sight words, word families, letter tiles, etc. Inside the folder is the Kindergarten Readiness screening that the center coordinator will be doing for all the children who will be entering K next year.

So, those are some things I have gotten done. Can't wait to have a full list of names, so I can start on the name cards for writing area and labeling everything!

Organization

Well, Summer is winding down. Time to start thinking about organizing your classroom for another wonderful school year! Which means, back-to-school shopping with all those crazy deals that a teacher just cannot pass up. Well in the last month or so, there have been a couple new hobbies I have taken up, Pinterest.com and Target dollar shopping. Both of which are GREAT resources to use for organizing.

First of all, I stocked up on Target's plastic crates (not in the dollar section, but caught them on sale for $3.00, so a bargain nonetheless). I have used them just for storage so far. They are great because you can use hanging file folders in them. But also, they fit perfectly in the shelving unit I already had and I use them to store craft items mostly. They would be great to use in the classroom for books, etc.

Here is a wonderful example I ran across on Pinterest of how a teacher turned crates into seats, so they can be used for storage as well as seating.

Also, I found some dollar deals including a mini pocket chart and some lined dry-erase board strips. I am going to use them for circle time or small groups to have the children write something on their board and then they can come up and display it in the pocket chart.

Some other uses for the mini-pocket chart I found lying around...

Dr. Suess was well-represented in the dollar section of target, from erasers to markers to silly bands to pins. None of which I bought, but I did think the vinyl bags were a great value for a dollar, so I have picked up one of each, The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Green Eggs and Ham. These I will use to make activity bags that will include the book itself and some activities that go along with it. For additional ideas about Dr. Suess, go to Obsuessed.com.

Pinterest has given me soooo many ideas that I wanna do them all, but I know there is no possible way I can. At least not this year...  One thing I really like about it too is that the things I repin almost always lead me to new blogs. I would like to share a blog called Target Treasures, which relates back to my other newest hobby. This is a blog all about things a teacher buys at Target and uses for the classroom. Great!

Another Pinterest find I came across is Printable Labels for Book Bins. Pretty self-explanatory, but click the link to see photos and to print out the labels!