The Perfect Storage Container

Organization is music to a teacher’s soul. When things in our classroom have a designated home, students take better care of the resources, we know exactly where to find them, and it adds a sense of calm to our learning spaces! From math centers to morning tubs, I’ve found THE perfect storage containers and today I wanted to share the goodness with you.

Throughout the post, you’ll find Amazon Affiliate links, which means Amazon tosses a few nickels my way if you purchase something through that link, at no extra cost to you, that help keep my corner of cyber-space running and helps fund giveaways!  

Math & Word Work Choices

Classroom Storage For Morning Tubs

Morning Tubs are a paperless morning work choice that offer my students the opportunity to work cooperatively with their peers during those first few minutes of our day. Our tubs are filled with lots of  manipualtives (reading and math). While students are ‘playing’, they are also engaging with academic tools in a non-threatening way. They have the chance to explore new words with our phonics dice, they can make silly sentences with our sentence puzzles, create words with our letter tiles, conjure difficult math problems with the base ten pieces, and create 16-sided shapes with our geoboards.

I use these medium clip-top bins for morning tub bins. They are much smaller than the large bins and SUPER deep. They are perfect for storing lots of manipualtives, cards, or materials. (Read more about our Morning Tub routine here.)

Classroom Storage For Math Materials

I have 30 cubbies in my 1st grade classroom and use the last 4-6 cubbies for Daily 5 and Guided Math storage. I store things that I want my students to have access to in these cubbies because they are 1st grade sized. Even if completely stacked, students can reach the top bins.I clearly label every bin so my friends know exactly what to grab and where to put materials back. This helps keep things organized and allows students to be in charge. My friends know that anything with a label can be touched by a 1st grader. If a bin doesn’t have a label, they need to ask me before touching! (The bins on the left are size small, the ones on the middle are size medium and the ones on the right are size large.)

Themed Books

Each week, our classroom bookshelf hosts a different series or book theme. (I’ve share more about our Weekly Bookshelves here.) Many times these books go directly back into our classroom library but other times times they go into the large tubs, especially when they are seasonal books or books Levels O and higher! Again, I snagged a set of 6 large Sterilite bins to store these books!

Indoor Recess Choices

Through Donors Choose funding, our classroom was blessed with TONS of indoor recess choices. From Legos, to MagnaTiles, to K’nex, to Interlox, we have so many options when rain and cold weather come. I’m using these new DEEP tubs to store our pieces and they are perfect because they allow lots of little hands to grab at one time. Plus, the large opening makes clean-up a breeze.

Where Can I Find These Classroom Storage Containers?

• Amazon – sets of 6 (Right now, they are on sale for $3.15 a piece…a STEAL!)
• Home Depot
• Dollar General – in stores only
• Target – only carries them in green in stores and blue online

Does an organized classroom make your heart skip a beat?? I’d love to hear your favorite organization bins and tubs. There can never be too many bins!