Classroom Organization Techniques

From my time in the lower school classroom, I fondly remember harping (teaching?) organization skills to sometimes-messy 3rd and 4th-graders. In these “black holes” of desks, student assignments seem hopelessly lost, never to be seen again (or at least until the student spends 10 minutes of precious learning time searching for it to find it in a crumpled ball).

So what can we do to assist our students in slaying these "desk monsters"?

1.) First, start the year off with some expectations and explicitly lay out with your students what an organized work space looks like. (Note: Even if you didn't do this at the beginning of the year, it's never too late if you feel there is a need!)

To start the process, I like to get the students thinking about what an organized vs. disorganized space looks like. I did this concept attainment with one of the classrooms in our building this year, and it was a wonderfully, easy way to get their wheels turning. To begin, I simply had the columns titled "yes" and "no". I then slowly began adding pictures to the columns as an example of each category. When I finished adding the examples, I asked the students to discuss what they thought the photos represented/what may be a good title for our poster. "Organized Desks" of course!