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Classroom Materials

Egg Carton Trick
I use a paper egg carton to hold a perfect dozen markers. Turn the egg carton upside down, poke a hole with scissors into each circle and cover the top (which is now the bottom) with duct tape so that the markers won't fall through the slit. I always know when one is missing. Further, I make labels marked 'teacher' and the kids know they're not to use them as the teacher's markers are tools for teaching.

Organization & Labeling of Your Personal Books

#1 Make cubbies in a closet or other areas of your classroom. Store them according to
personal a topic. For example put September books in one, holidays, science, animals, fairy
tales, special projects, etc. in others.
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#2 Book labeling----- Keep your thematic books in a separate basket and when that theme is through, put them in theme boxes unless it is a very popular book and in that case, leave it out and even go to the library and get extra copies. Also, have a separate basket on the book shelf for number and alphabet and easy reader books. You may also want to keep special books (i.e.: Disney and Dr. Seuss) books separate with their own book racks. Keep a large basket on the independent work table for when you are in reading groups which contains those easy readers by Scholastic or Step into Reading. They love those and later on really start to read them because they look like real chapter books.
P.S. If any of you have a Value City near you, they have a lot of these kind of books for 99 cents. Normally at the bookstore, you would pay $3.99 . I got my class each one for their end of the year gift.
Submitted by: Aurora1604@email-removed

#3 You can color code your books using several different methods. This is one: Pre primer 1 = red, pre primer 2 = blue, pre primer 3 = green, primer = pink, first reader = yellow, 2nd grade reader = orange, and so on.The kids select books at their level, or below their level. It seems to work, and they are very excited when they can move to the next color.
Submitted by: Liz

#4 I include favorite author baskets. I have Eric Carle, Marc Brown, Mem Fox, Robert Munsch
and a few others. In the past I haven't put out an author basket until I have introduced that
author in an author study. This year I am going to try putting them all out at once and spread them around the room. I also have a poetry basket.
Submitted by: Debbie FirstTX@email-removed

Storing Magic Markers
Tired of your marker caps getting lost and drying out? Here are a couple of ways to eliminate this problem.

Find an old bowl and fill it with Plaster of Paris. As you insert the caps, only put them about 3/4 of the way in. You want to make sure that there is still a small part of the cap showing. Once the plaster is dry and hard, you are ready to set them out in your classroom.
Take one, large piece of duct tape and lay it sticky side up on your table. (If you want space between each of your markers, be sure to account for that.) Carefully place the markers about 3/4 of the way onto the tape. Take a second piece of tape, the same size as your first, and lay it across the caps. If you have space between markers, gently press to attach the tape. You can also label the pack.

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