8 Tips for Packing Up Your Classroom

Tip #1: Make a Giant List No matter if you are moving schools, switching rooms, or just putting everything in the cupboards there are a MILLION things to do to get your classroom packed up for the summer. The list seems a mile long (because it is) and it can be overwhelming trying to get all packed while juggling report cards, Open House, and the end of the year events. For me, it is really helpful to actually make that mile long list. Once I have everything written down, I can organize my to do list and figure out what things I can be doing a month before school ends, or things I have to do the last day of school.

Tip #2: Make Smaller Lists Once I have my jumbo list, I start making smaller lists of things I can check off that doesn't alter my classroom's appearance, and no one would ever know I was starting to pack! I start packing the things that I used in the beginning of the year. I make a weekly and daily checklist of things to do, and I also make a list of things that I have to wait to complete until the last day or the day after the kids leave. Tip #3: VIP Box Over my 10 years of teaching there have been random times when I am in a time crunch to get my room unpacked and ready for students to walk in the door. One year my room flooded over the summer and the carpets needed to be replaced, another year I had to switch rooms last minute and couldn't access all of my belongings. Since those two stressful Septembers I have made a VIP Box that houses all of my most important items for the beginning of the year. Here are some items that I include in my VIP Box:

• Pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, paper
• Dry erase markers
• Classroom posters
• A couple back to school books
• Alphabet, number line, color ,and shape posters
• Homework folders

We all know weird things happen over the summer, and it is better to be prepared than to be in a frenzy the first week of school. Inside the VIP Box I used these neon storage bins to house all of my favorite teacher school supplies. I want to make sure my favorite pens are waiting for me day 1. The large craft bags were perfect for keeping smaller supplies from getting lost inside my giant bin. Tip #4: Get your files ready for the first month of school. The week before the first day of school is a whirlwind. I would suggest organizing your supplies and making copies so you are ready to go the first day. I keep my supplies organized in clear classroom book organizers during the summer. Once summer is over, I use them in my class library! Tip #5: Keep Manipulatives/Toys/Games Together I keep my maipulatives, toys, and games out all year long, and need a temporary place to store them during the summer. I found these plastic storage bags (which come in small, medium, and large) that are perfect for storing things with several pieces. The plastic is durable and can then be shoved (I mean gently placed ;) into the cupboard until I need them starting the first day of school. Tip #6 Color Code Color coding is the best way for me to stay organized! I use color stickers to help label boxes so I can quickly group supplies together according to their purpose. Tip #7 Keep the community supplies grouped together. I have my students sit at table group and they have community supplies. This means all of the crayons, glue, scissors, etc. stay in the middle of the table and they all share them. I like to keep those supplies in neon round containers because they are big enough for the school supplies and are stackable to store them with ease. This will also help me quickly set up in the beginning of the year with sharpened pencils and enough supplies counted out for each table group. Tip #8 Store your bulletin board supplies together I am obsessed with this Carson-Dellosa border storage kit that allows me to easily store and see my border collection. I used to have the borders in a drawer which ended up all messy and tangled with bent border pieces. As I take down my bulletin boards at the end of the year, I throw away old borders that I don't want and I make a pile of the boarders I want to use the following year. Any boarders that I'm going to be using, I place in my storage kit, so I am ready the next year. Another tip is to plan out your bulletin boards ahead of time. I pull all of the supplies, posters, letters and place them in a clear classroom storage tub so have all of my supplies in one location. I even draw out a map of my classroom and brainstorm where and what each bulletin board will look like. This saves me hours of planning at the end of summer when my brain is still on vacation! Good luck packing up your room this year!