Zip Ties are a Girl's Best Friend

Hi there!!! Hope you're off to a great week so far!

I thought I'd combine some of my most popular posts with great back to school tips that might help you out as we all get ready to head back to school. (I know so many of you are already there! Eeeek!)

Here they are! (So sorry about the poor photo quality of some of the photos- these posts are pretty old ;-)

Glue sponges!!!!! The answer to the always clogged glue bottles! Find directions on how to make these over at Kindergarten Smorgasboard! Seriously- best idea EVER!

Tape the bottom of the crayon boxes before school starts! This eliminates the mid-year/January crayon spills all over the place!! Eeeek!

~~Diamonds~~ Zip Ties Are a Girl's Best Friend

Zip tie the desks together!!!! This'll keep 'em all in nice, neat rows!!! (Just the way we like 'em!) ;)

MAGNETIC TAPE!!!! Yes please! This was an impulse buy at Lakeshore and it really works!!! I used it on my door for our class helpers board!

(I'll add their names to each airplane!!!)

I've eliminated the kiddos' constant need to bust into my small group time with this. I am working on teaching the kids that if they need help or anything while I'm at my small group table with a kid, they need to ask their table for group for help. Here are my rules for the X:

1. Only one kid at a time on the X.

2. While waiting, no talking! (Or flailing your body around like crazy. Or making noises. Or whistling. Geez!)

3. I will call you over when it is convenient for our group.

We also talk A LOT and REPEATEDLY about acceptable reasons to stand on the X. To tell me your cat threw up last night is NOT an acceptable reason. If you are bleeding or are about to throw up are.

I must thank my bloggy BFF Lisa at Fourth & Ten for this magnificent idea!!!! The kids turn their homework in here first thing in the morning according to their class number. I can quickly see who has it and who doesn't. The key here is quickly!!! MUCH easier than pulling it all out of the turn in tub, sorting it, checking it off, etc. This has eliminated at least 10 minutes of wasted time out of my days! That's 50 minutes all week!!! Love it!!! Thank you Lisa!!! You can find the chart HERE. And the cute numbers are from Kristin at Ladybug's Teacher Files. You can find them HERE.

Duh!!! Now they know where to line up!!! And they're actually in a straight line!!! Yipeee!!!

Whoever thought of this was also brilliant! These little trash cans (I found them at the Dollar Tree!) have saved us from HUGE paper messes all over the floor! And from traffic jams around the trash cans!!! (We were working on Hadar's School is Cool activity! You can find it HERE!)