Every month we give our blog over to one of our wonderful teacher sellers to give you some advice and tips for your classroom. Our first teacher is our top seller, who recently had a name-change. Infant Teaching Ideas is now called All Things Primary and she has very kindly supplied us with some tips to save teachers time.
Please visit All Things Primary at her store!
Do you find that you are forever making, printing, photocopying and laminating resources?
Are you always on the lookout for new resources or trying to find that really good book/toy/resource you had last year? Well, you are not alone! Here are my top 3 tips which might make life a bit easier for you!
Stick and double laminate!
There is nothing worse than carefully cutting all your laminating and placing all the bits so precisely in order to fit as much into each laminating pouch as possible (they are expensive after all!), to then see some of your resources move, ever so slightly, just as they roll into the laminator, making them no good and you needing to start all over again! You will kick yourself when you think of the easiest solution – glue! A simple little dot of glue, just to hold each piece of paper in place will stop this from happening ever again! And did you know you can laminate 2 sheets at the same time? No, I promise they won’t get stuck together! Don’t believe me? Try it!
Catalogue resources so you know where they are when you need them
Resources are never ending! Especially phonic resources! There is a never ending demand for resources, games and activities for phonics and it can, at times, be impossible to stay on top of it!
I have found the task a bit easier by storing all my phonics resources in large folders and by grouping the resources according to sets of sounds. That way, all the resources I need are all in the one place and it also prevents sounds that haven’t been covered popping up in the middle of a game and confusing the children. I try to ensure that I laminate all my resources and store them carefully in plastic wallets to try to get as many years out of them as possible!
It’s never too late to get organised and you can start your phonic resource folder now with the Phonics Activity Bundle of resources https://mash.ie/product/phonics-activity-bundle/, which is already organised into the sound sets for you! You will never have any trouble finding the right resource again!
Storage!
I plan through monthly topics and I find this really helpful for lots of various reasons but mainly for organising resources. I store each topic in a plastic storage container in my attic! Every resource – from plans and timetables to roleplay costumes, displays and picture books, go into a storage container and are safely stored away after each use. Each time I cover the topic all my resources are ready to go and makes it easier to add a little bit to each year!
If, like me, you like to plan through topics, there are ready made set of topic plans, covering SESE for the whole year as well as yearly (and monthly) Aistear plans available on the store! As a treat for getting organised, use the coupon code ‘ORGANISED’ to get a 25% discount on all yearly plans and the Phonics Activity Bundle!