Center Organization

Happy Cyber Monday! If you are anything like me then you just bought a bunch of new and amazing products from TPT. I can't stop buying centers and I'm not sorry about it...until it times come to organize. I have a ton of math and language centers and I've finally found a organization system that works pretty well for me.  5th grade is the only grade I've ever taught and let me tell you, they've spoiled me. I have a similar rotation for my math and reading centers and students know my expectations. Each week I just take my centers and put them in their corresponding basket. 

When I'm I'm organizing a new center, I always laminate and cut out each part first. Then, I hole punch the top left corner of every item in that center. I usually use task cards as my math centers or sometimes games with different pieces. This helps me attach them with a book clip to keep them all together. 

Keeping all of the pieces together really helps me from year to year. I love being able to go into my decimal or fraction bin, quickly grab the center I want and I'm done. I've also found that it works well to include all pieces when I hole punch, even the answer key and recording sheet. It makes is so easy for me to make copies of the recording sheet and then take the answer key off for quick grading.  I don't have to go back to my TPT account and re-download to print the recording sheets again. 

The book clips that I use to hold all of the pieces together came  from Amazon for $7.00 for a pack of 100. After I purchased these I've found a million uses for them and repurchased them several times. 

When I'm not using the centers i store them in bins that I got from the Dollar Store. I found similar ones online for $2.75 each and I feel like the ones that I have aren't that much more expensive. I would recommend getting the bigger storage bins if you are anything like me and have a center buying problem.  

Each storage bin is labeled with the type of centers that are inside of them. I am currently working on organizing these bins more specifically, but as of right now it works pretty well. I would love to see how you organize your centers and if you've got any tips for me! 

Happy Cyber Monday Shopping!