Classroom Must-Haves!

I have a few things in the classroom that I couldn’t live without.

Tidy Tubs:

Tidy Tubs are a must have in any elementary classroom. They help keep our classroom clean, they are easy to store, and it helps promote responsibility in our classroom. Whenever we are doing a craftivity or a cut and paste activity, we put our Tidy Tubs on each table. When kids are cutting things out they can quickly throw their trash in the Tidy Tub instead of leaving a paper clutter on their table. At the end of the activity, the student with the job of ‘waste management’ will collect all of the tubs, dump the trash, and put them away.

Crayon Organizer:

This organization system is a life saver! If any kid is in need of a certain crayon they know just where to look! Once the crayons start to get low, it’s time to have a kid who loves to clean and organize, put a new box of crayons away. I have two cups on top that hold white, black, beige, and gray crayons. I found the drawers at Michaels. The drawers are usually $40 but they are a great price when they are 40% off. If you do not use crayons in your class you can use this for markers, colored pencils, or oil pastels.

Community Wall:

This can be done two ways. One way, they way I decided to do it this year, is to take pictures of your kids during the day, print, and frame. This displays new friendships being made, fun memories in our classroom, and how our class can work together as a team. Another way you could display your class, is to have parents send in family pictures to display. This gives the kids an opportunity to share about their family. I found these 8.5×11 frames on amazon.

Classroom Microphone:

I absolutely love having a classroom microphone. We use our microphone in our morning meeting/share time. I also love to use it when teaching whole group lessons or giving directions during transition time. It is also fun to see how my musically talented children LOVE to use the microphone during brain breaks. I remember having a child in my class who loved to sing songs from Greatest Showman and we would call her performance “The Lilly Show.” The kids loved hearing her sing and in return would want to sing duets with her or be her backup dancers. It was so fun to see how her talents would light up the room. I found this microphone on amazon and they come in a variety of colors.