Let’s face it, staying organized for reading groups can be tricky, especially when you see multiple groups a day. My favorite teacher organizational tool is rainbow bins! And if having too many rainbow storage bins is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Whenever those colorful bins go on sale, I just can’t resist buying them, whether I need them or not.
Here are my four favorite ways to stay organized using these rainbow storage bins, with a special focus on reading group organization!
LABEL EVERYTHING
I hate wasting instructional time or my planning time! I was finding that it was taking too much time to look through my rainbow bins for the needed activities, and it was driving me crazy. I tried a few different organizational systems, but nothing seemed to work.
Enter Lisa Hollady Chalkboard Superhero. We met at an Extended School Year program, and I was in awe of how beautifully organized her rainbow storage bins were. Her secret? This freebie is from her store! An organizational game-changer for sure!
POKE CARDS
Poke cards are my go-to activity when I need students to work independently so I can give assessments. Added bonus – the kids love them, too, and they fit perfectly in my rainbow bins!
Poke cards are my go-to activity when I need students to work independently so I can give assessments. Added bonus – the kids love them, too, and they fit perfectly in my rainbow bins!
Poke cards are easy to use and self-checking! Students look at the front of the card and determine their answer. They use a tool to poke their response (coffee stirrers are our favorites) and then turn it over to check their answer. If they are correct, the hole will be colored; if they are incorrect, they turn the card over and try again.
I have poke cards covering a variety of skills, that I have two bins dedicated to them. Now that they are organized, I can set them out, and the students can easily choose the set they want to do and put things back in the right place.
FLASHCARDS
My school uses Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), a unique core curriculum for PreK–5 ELA grounded in the science of reading and research-based foundational skills instruction. I have tons of flashcards that match each CKLA unit. I use them for practicing fluency, automaticity, and decoding. Kindergarten alone has eight units of sequential phonics instruction, so having the flashcards organized and ready to go is crucial for smooth reading group organization with rainbow storage bins.
Our school uses Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA). CKLA is a unique core curriculum for PreK–5 ELA grounded in the science of reading and research-based foundational skills instruction.
I have flashcards to match each skill unit. I use them to practice fluency, automaticity, and decoding. Kindergarten alone has 8 units of sequential phonics instruction, so I must have the cards organized and ready to go when needed!
If you want to give them a try, here is a link to 318 pages of FREE flashcards!
Flashcards are an important part of my reading group routines. They help build automaticity and give students a chance to practice their decoding skills in a controlled setting. Flashcards may seem boring, but here are four quick ways to make them more fun!
MANIPULATIVES
Manipulatives are helpful tools when working on phonological awareness within reading groups. I use them for explicitly teaching blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and manipulating words and sounds. The best part is my rainbow bins are the perfect teacher organizational tool to save time and keep my manipulatives handy.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Remember, organizing your reading materials doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the help of rainbow storage bins you can create a well-oiled machine of reading group organization. So, go ahead and give these strategies a try – it will save you precious time with reading groups!
OTHER IDEAS?
So, how else do you utilize your rainbow bin storage for effective reading group organization? I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions in the comments!
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PS
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