Sasha from The Autism Helper shows how to organize classroom resources using binders sorted by skill type, crate systems for math materials, and color-coded bins that let aides swap activities without teacher input. She emphasizes giving every resource a permanent home base and using visual cues so students can independently return items.
Hi, this is Sasha from The Autism Helper. Don't mind my very close photography today. I don't have anyone to help me take a video, but I wanted to show you how I store some of my resources. I get asked this all the time, and this is a really big issue. We spend so much time making all of these awesome resources, and then we shove them in a bin and can't find them. So I'm gonna show you where I keep everything kind of out of the way. My classroom does have a really great closet, but if your classroom doesn't, I do recommend putting it out of the way and having a spot for everything before you bring out to your classroom. So I'm gonna switch screens here and share. Right, so first up is worksheets. So I have binders for all of my worksheets organized by type. So social skills, sequencing, reading activities, all of my units are in their own binders, addition mega pack, money mega pack, curriculum, etc. So everything's in binders. File folders for me were not working So this system makes it easy to find what I'm looking for right when I need it. So as far as worksheets, everything's kind of in one spot in all of these binders. Um, next is kind of my math other resources like Lakeshore Center's games, flashcards, um, things that I've made, file folders, things like that. So I have these crates that store basically all of my Lakeshore and different tasks that I've made organized by concepts. So I have writing and vocabulary, sequencing, comprehension, basic skills, phonics, word work, grammar. So everything has a spot back here. I recommend everything having a home base. Yes, you'll pull these things out to use in the classroom, but then there's a spot for it to go. So in the start of the year when you're setting up your class or when you're redoing your kind of storage system, make sure that everything fits in first, even if you have empty drawers throughout the year. Like maybe during the year we use these within the class, but there's still a home base for it. So when you're switching things out, you can have a spot to put things away. All of my flashcards are stored here. Um, again, having everything have a home base so when you switch things out, you'll be able to put it away and then find it for the next student. So I have all my sight word cards, basic, basic skills, math, advanced skills. I'm constantly rotating through flashcard sets, and I was realizing I was making ones that I already had. So keeping them organized like this is really helpful and will save you time from redoing things. Um, over here I've shared this system before. This is how I store my file folders, again organized by skill level. I really recommend constantly storing everything and organizing everything by skill level or by skill type because you'll be able to get and put it away and then find it. Now these are color-coded, so every file folder has a sticker on it. So these are red, matching is red, everyone can put it away easily. Basic categorizing is green, green, easy peasy. So I have a bunch of extra milk cartons, so I just zip tied these together, but you can use a file cabinet. Obviously you can use bins. I just think storing them by skill type and by level of difficulty is going to make finding what you need a lot easier. I also even took this a step further and made a file folder guide. So according to each student, which colors they can do. So someone, anyone could walk into my room want to work with Isaiah, know exactly what 2 colors to grab for him and be done. So super easy. I got these on Amazon, so different colored stickers. Um, and then next I have math resources. I stored them in file cabinets, so the concepts that are stored here right in the drawer. Um, now what I did this year, which was a little bit different, is I also organized sections of storage based on groups of students. And this really helped, um, the staff in my room rotate items that we use in the class. So yes, we have all these great resources, but we don't want to do the same thing throughout the whole year. So maybe we want to switch out for a different task every week. So I have a few different areas that are organized by groups of students. So these are math bin work, and then the groups of students that are doing these tasks. So in the start of the year, every few months, I just load up different activities in here— file folders, games, centers, things like that. And so then the aides can easily switch them out from the classroom right from these bins. And then the same thing over here in file cabinets, so math centers, reading centers for the groups of students. So again, I'm not having to constantly necessarily be doing it myself or telling people, oh, these activities are for these kids and these aren't for these, because I'm somewhat particular about which activities each kids are doing. So that's an easy way to kind of set it up for a few months and then you can only maybe switch out a few times a year because you'll be able to put a ton of different activities in here and then your aides or other staff members can switch out, or even if you're just switching it out, sometimes it's a pain to go through everything and you want to have access to it. Over here I have games stored, so my kids access these or I access these, but it's nice to have like one place for all of your games too. The next important thing that I store are my sorts. So I put all my math sorts in these bins, again organized by letter. Levels. So color-coded, all of the green sorts are level 1, and they're all labeled with a green sticky. Um, so those are the easiest level, the mid-level, and the hard level. All the sorts are in there. And then reading is the same thing. They're all in these baskets with the coordinating color so everyone can put them away the right way, and going in level of increasing difficulty. So that way I can tell students exactly what to do. But we're gonna all be putting things away in the same area. So this is a peek into their independent work, and it coordinates exactly with this color coding system. So Monday we're doing Reading Centers 3, which is the green. So there'll be no question, they'll be able to easily find that.
