In our classroom, we have no tables and desks. We do all of our learning and art and work on the floor! Since we don’t have tables and desks, we don’t have pencil boxes or our own supplies so classroom supplies organization is a must! In our classroom, we use community supplies and we share everything!This post shows various versions of our community supplies area because this area changes each year.The biggest reason for the changes is simplifying the supplies we use and keeping this area more organized.
Why community supplies you ask? Well…let me tell ya why! Pull up a chair, grab a sweet tea, and I’ll tell you.
Picture it…Sicily, 1928…OH WAIT… I’m not Sophia…never mind.
Classroom Supplies Organization: Efficiency
Community supplies cut down on lost learning time! Everything is right there. We know where it is. The kids aren’t digging in a desk or pencil box looking for something. So we grab what we need and go! In fact, we are trained to go in a line around our carpet and walk in line to get what we need and return to our seats on the carpet!
Classroom Supplies Organization: Sharing
Community supplies promote sharing and cooperation, which builds community.My kids are great at sharing their materials, and I give our community supplies a lot of credit for that kindness. Sharing is something we have to do every day, so it becomes part of who we are. It’s just what we do.
Classroom Supplies: Respecting Materials
Community supplies help us respect and care for our materials. You see, this classroom is not my classroom.Nope.All of that fun, cool stuff isn’t my stuff. It belongs to every single kid who is in our classroom. You see, it’s OUR STUFF! IT’S OUR CLASSROOM! And if we don’t take care of our stuff, you don’t upset Mr. Greg. Nope. Worse. You upset your friends. And if you don’t take care of our stuff, we don’t have fun stuff to help us learn.
Classroom Supplies Organization: How Does Community Supplies Work?
So, pretty much everything that students would need to do their work, hippopotamuses (centers), arts and crafts…is there.
We have our clipboards, scissors, pencils, dry-erase boards and markers, and our socks for erasing our dry-erase boards on top. The shelves hold our crayon boxes (10 boxes so the kids share. Each box has 3 boxes of crayons inside.), magnetic letters, frisbees for writing, chalkboards, chalk and some math manipulatives. They also hold our glue sponges.
The clear containers are from Amazon, but those exact ones are no longer available.
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The black containers are from Target.
Here is what the community supply area looked like in our previous classroom:
Of course, community supplies require procedures and expectations, and we spend a lot of time early in the year learning how to get and use each supply. I model explicitly how to get a pencil, scissors, dry-erase board, etc. And then I model how to carry the items. Finally, I model how to put it away. And I model how NOT to do it. The expectations for community supplies are high (like all expectations in our classroom)! We take care of our supplies, carry them correctly and safely, and keep them clean and organized. And most importantly, WE GRAB AND GO! We don’t dig for a certain color or piddle fart around trying to get supplies! GRAB AND GO PEOPLE! GRAB AND GO!
For more information on our classroom arrangement and no tables/no desks, check out these posts:
