Reading and Language Arts

Another teacher in my previous school (Joyce Paige) had such a fabulous idea for storing reading curriculum materials that I copied it myself!  I purchased enough 3-drawer organizers to have 1 for each story in our reading curriculum. (That's 12 containers at about $6 each, so $72.  But considering you can reuse these same containers for years and years to come, it's a worthwhile investment.  We get a small amount of money each year for miscellaneous purchases and I was able to get reimbursed for mine).  This has solved the never-ending filing problem for me because I don't have to dig through filing cabinets to put things away properly- I just slide open a drawer.  Anything associated with the story goes into the drawer: spelling tests, worksheets, activities, student work samples (to show the kids the following year as models), games, transparencies, etc.

I also keep a magazine file holder for each of the 8 reading strands addressed in our state standards (Author's Purpose, Cause and Effect, Plot/Conflict, etc.).  Our instruction is very tightly aligned with the standards and there are a lot of activities I do with the kids that focus on one strand but aren't associated with any particular story in our reading series, so I keep them seperate.  There is a laminated two pocket folder for each strand: these hold the originals of all papers.  Behind the folders, I keep class sets (photocopies) of the originals that I plan to use in the upcoming weeks.  This way, everything is together and easy to access, without me having to root through a file cabinet.  (There is also a manila folder in each box to hold the mini-assessments our school district gives for each strand).  Because 'Vocabulary' is such a broad strand, I also have a three-ring binder (pictured on the far right) that has dividers for each sub-area (homphones, multiple meaning words, context clues, root words, etc.).

Social Studies and Science  

I took it a step further and created drawers for the content areas, too!  I wanted larger ones for science to hold all of the materials for our experiments and slightly smaller ones for social studies artifacts and props.  Each drawer has a laminated legal size folder for each chapter in the unit.   The key here is that the containers are drawers, not just bins, because if I had to unstack them and take the lids off to file something, I would be too lazy to do it.  This way, if I come across something I might like to use for a later science or social studies unit, I can just open the appropriate drawer and toss it in, then sort everything out when it's time to teach the unit.

Math

I don't use drawers for my math papers because we have 30 chapters and I would need too many!  Here's how I used to organize my math materials when I had two extra early-childhood-style shelves that another teacher wasn't using. I set up one space for each chapter in our math textbook. 

Inside each compartment, I kept the materials I used to teach the skills in that chapter, center activities, and a folder for all the lessons, worksheets, and activities that I used. Right before I was ready to teach the chapter, I pulled out the folder and turned in all the papers inside to have copies made. 

Now I don't have the shelves anymore, so I switched to a more compact system.  These are very sturdy, colorful magazine file boxes I got for free from Highlights magazine.  There is one for each of the 13 major concepts we study (measurement, time, money, multiplication, etc.).  I kept the folders from the system pictured above.  Any class sets of papers are kept in the magazine box, but not inside the folder (which is only for originals).  This works perfectly for me because I don't have to deal with any file cabinets- if I want to put a paper away, I just have to stick it in a file box.

Math materials are kept in these large black drawers- if you click on the picture, you'll see that each drawer is labeled with a concept (multiplication/division, measurement, etc.).  Any class sets of manipulatives, games, etc. that I keep for the unit are in that drawer, so I pass them out at the beginning of a lesson and return them to the drawer at the end.  This method is convenient enough for me to put the materials back even if I will need them again the very next day, because all I have to do is open the drawer.

Because we do frequent fact practice drills (Mad Minute, etc.), I have a seperate system for filing class sets of those papers.  I used an magazine file box that is more open than the traditional design.  I laminated pieces of construction paper to use as dividers, so there is one section for addition fact practice papers, one for subtraction, and one for division.  (We don't do much fact practice for these operations in third grade, so I only need one section for each.  The sections hold mixed fact practice paperclipped together.  There is a seperate section for each multiplication table (0,1,2,3, etc. up to 10) because students are quizzed on these tables individually.  In the back are mixed multiplication fact practice and a section for the original copies to make class set copies from.