Organizing math centers is key to keeping your items organized so that they are easy to find from year to year. Math center time and stations are a great way to engage your learners for the entire school year, but they can easily become overwhelming with the amount of manipulatives and task cards involved.
Not only am I going to give you some tips on organizing math centers and math lessons, but I’m also going to share with you simple ways to prep your materials once and for all.
Prepping Your Math Centers
When prepping and organizing math centers, I recommend that the first thing you do is print onto card stock and laminate to begin your organization system. This ensures that your materials will last. I have a personal laminator that has been a lifesaver and has become one of my favorite things for my classroom space! These can be found at Walmart, Target, or Amazon for around $20. The lamination is much more durable than the flimsy film that most school laminators have. I buy my sheets in bulk from Amazon as well.
If you do not read anything else in this blog post, please do not miss what I am about to say!
DO NOT make multiple sets of the same stations for each child to have their own during center rotations.
That takes up way too much time. If you are using task cards in math centers, print 1 or 2 sets onto different colored paper for students to share. The different colors allow the cards to not get mixed up.
If you prefer to print in color, label the back of each set of cards with all the same number or color to keep them from getting mixed up.
If an activity includes some sort of game board, I make 3 sets so that they can work in partners. I never have more than 6 students in a group so 3 copies is plenty for students to share.
Organizing Your Math Centers
1. Ziploc Baggies
I like to keep things super simple. Plus, I’ll admit, I’m cheap. Also, ziplocs from the Dollar Tree are on most school supply lists. Most of my centers or stations are stored in gallon ziplock bags. Each bag contains the direction pages, the recording sheets, and all the big and small pieces.
2. Different Colored Sandwich Bags
Look for different colored sandwich sized bags at your local dollar store. I was able to find some that were red, green, and blue.
For each set of cards, I added that color dot to the back. All the blue dot cards go in the blue bag. It helps getting pieces from getting mixed up.
3. Poly Zip Folder
These poly zip folders are actually my favorite way to store my center supplies.
They are large enough to hold a full sheet of paper and still close where as gallon zip loc bags are not. They easily stand up in a file cabinet or crate where as a plastic bag will fall down and they are more durable.
The only downside is that they can be expense. I purchase mine off of Amazon and 16 envelopes for $16.
4. Manila Folders
You can also store your centers and math materials in manila folders. I recommend laminating them so that they will last. All of your pieces and recording sheets go inside.
5. Large Plastic Containers
For longterm storage, I use these 9×12 Sterilite containers. Each container holds one set month of math centers. I also buy these from Amazon but they can be found at any department store.
6. Drawer Carts
Drawer carts are great storage containers for math center organization. Mine are organized by concept. I purchased this cart from Sam’s for around $25. They can also be found at Michaels but are more expensive there.
You can see mine in the photo below. I have a designated drawer for each concept. This is where I keep any activities related to that concept so that I can grab them at any time to store my math manipulatives and more.
Other Math Center Organizational Tool Options
Some other storage solutions include file plastic folders, but know that pieces can easily fall out. For long term storage you could use a drawer in a filing cabinet or store them in a crate.
Now it’s time to think it through. You need to decide what type of storage solution is going to be best for you. Can you use something that you already have in a creative way in your math classroom? What do you need to purchase to stay organized for the entire year?
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You can also check out this blog post that explains what Guided Math is and how you can get started.
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