As teachers, we have a lot of standards to teach. Especially elementary teachers, we teach so many subjects. In my classroom, I was given some good options for curriculum and some not so great options for curriculum. Whether I had a good curriculum to follow or not, I found myself supplementing ideas I found on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers.
After my first year of teaching, I acquired a lot of extra resources. I tried to keep all these resources organized in folders. I would keep folders for standards or folders for topics. But eventually, it got to the point where it was so unorganized and hard to look through the folder that I couldn’t find anything I needed.
I decided to change the way I organized my resources and this helped a ton! I was easily able to see everything I had for each standard I taught! This saved so much time planning and preparing for lessons.
The Binder
I decided to have a binder for each subject area I teach. I teach math, science, social studies, and ELA, so I had a binder for each. I decided that ELA had a lot of standards so I divided it into a reading binder and a writing/language binder.
Standards
For each binder, I made a sheet for each standard of that subject. Each sheet stated the standard number and had the whole standard written out. I then decided to put each sheet in a sheet protector. This way l could easily flip through and find the standard. You could also put dividers in between the sections of the standards. For example, math has sections of number and operations, fractions, measurement and data, geometry, etc. This could keep you even more organized and easily able to flip to that section.
After each standard in a sheet protector, I hole punched my resources and put it behind the standard. Sometimes, I put my resource in a sheet protector if it had small pieces or task cards already cut out.
Every single resource I used and would use again, I put in the appropriate binder behind the standard it fit in. This way, when I was planning to teach a standard, I would turn to that section and see all the resources I had to use.
Planning using the Binder
When I was planning to teach the standard, all I had to do was pull out the resource and make copies of it for the coming week. When I was done making copies, I put it back in the binder so it was ready to use next time.
Having all your resources organized in standards also helps when pulling materials for struggling students. I had some students who were working on different standards with tutors or specialized teachers. This way, whatever they were working on, I could find activities for them to do when they went.
In the binder, I would put all worksheets, activities, printouts, note papers, completed projects for reference, task cards, simple games, projects and any materials that I have used to teach that standard.
Other Options
You can decide to keep a physical binder like I did. This is great to keep in your classroom. My husband didn’t like having a physical copy, so he did his on his computer. He created a folder for each subject or standard and kept all his resources in the digital form.
Also, we recently wrote a post on how to organize your Pinterest to help you better find the things you like to teach. You can read that here.
You can create the standard pages for your grade level for your binder. To save you some time, I have put all the standards together for you. So, all you need to do is to print and start organizing!
These our located on our Teachers Pay Teachers store here. You can download all the standards for your grade level in K-5. Each grade level includes Math and ELA. The standards are the Common Core Standards with the Common Core numbering. Click on your grade level below!
Click here for the Kindergarten ELA and Math standards.
Click here for the 1st Grade ELA and Math standards.
Click here for the 2nd Grade ELA and Math standards.
Click here for the 3rd Grade ELA and Math standards.
Click here for the 4th Grade ELA and Math standards.
Click here for the 5th Grade ELA and Math standards.
I hope this is helpful to you to organize your teaching resources and make planning your lessons so much easier and faster!
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
