Organizing My Units of Study in Phonics Set

 

I love using the workshop model in my classroom, and I have been waiting years for Lucy Calkins to come out with Units of Study in Phonics.  Last school year, some amazing kindergarten and first grade teachers in my district took on the role of piloting.  And in May, I finally got my hands on the set.  I’m SO excited.

But while I’m the most organized person I know, the thought of organizing the set seemed incredibly daunting.  So I ignored it for over two months.  Business as usual.

As I’m now starting to feel the stress of back-to-school, and even more so, back-to-school with brand new curriculum–organizing the set has become a quick priority.

I’ve searched online and talked to friends who’ve already taken the task on, but I haven’t necessarily been excited about what I’ve seen.  Everything shows five full-sized filing bins; one for each unit.  Makes sense, but selfishly I don’t want to have to find space for five bins.  So I broke it down into two bins and a small tote for the small group resources.  The first bin has grade level resources, unit one and unit two.  The second bin has units three through five.

For the file folders, I went with my fave Pendaflex Glow Hanging File Folders (I needed four sets of 25 folders).  Of course any old file folders will work, and I probably could have found enough in my classroom to get the job done.  But I’m persnickety and {needed} neon.  Bonus–they match with all of my Astrobrights and neon sticky notes.  Winning.

For the bins, I ordered two generic black file crates and a mobile file box for the small group resources (to be portable around my classroom).  To enhance the portability for my small group resources, I found plastic file jackets in the same neon colors as the file folders.  Again…winning.

All in all I paid about $125 for the supplies I purchased.  Definitely not a cheap project, but most of these can probably be found around your classroom or school for free.

With the supplies I purchased, I used five different colors of Post-Its (pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue) and cardstock to print the sticky notes and bin labels.  I didn’t use the file folder labels because it just takes too long to print and cut the labels to fit.  So I went with my File Folder Sticky Note Labels {you can find an editable version here}.  It’s super easy–just print the template, cover with sticky notes, print the labels you need, and stick.  I also love how they are bigger and easier to find what I need.


To get my Phonics Set Sticky Note Labels for F R E E, click here!  

Once I received all of my supplies, it only took me about two hours to
print and organize my entire Units of Study in Phonics curriculum.  So
easy.  Happy organizing!