Pages

Monday, July 29, 2013

Monday Made It- Mr. G and the Book Totes

Mr. G and the Book Totes, wouldn't that be a sweet band name? Anyways...

Hi! This year I will be using the Daily 5 and be departmentalized for the first time in my teaching career. Along with Daily 5, I really wanted to use book boxes for my students to have everything they need. Though I do not have the space for 40+ boxes in my classroom and needed an alternative. So I went with book totes! Check out what I made below.

Book Totes

First, I got my hands on these numbered buttons from an Etsy shop. 
I ordered a set set in black and white for my two different classes. 

I then pinned the buttons on to the corners of these colored totes bags I ordered from Oriental Trading. A set of 50 bags cost around $30. 

Rather than trying to find a place for all of the bags, I purchased these good'ol file crates and labeled them by classroom table numbers. The students will store their bags in these crates when they are not being used. 

Here is an aerial view of the bags sitting the crate.

These bags are the perfect size for everything I have planned for students to place inside.

Each bag will contain:
-station folder
-Writing Journal
-Readers Notebook
-3 classroom library books

Here you can see there is plenty of room for the items inside the bag! 

This project was fast and simple. Now the real question is how will these bags hold up as the year goes on? 



Until next time...

13 comments:

  1. Great idea with the book bags! I will be curious to see how they hold up. (You could wrap the bottom in duct tape I suppose...) Glad I found your blog! I'm following you on bloglovin'!

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love those buttons and your organization:) Organized things make me happy:) Thanks for linking up:)


    4th Grade Frolics

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice! I love the bags, that'll keep your kiddos nice and organized!

    Kerry

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the idea of using bags instead of boxes. Glad to find another third grade teacher to follow!

    Jeanette
    Third Grade Galore

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are awesome! Love the bags, LOVE the buttons idea, so clever and cool-looking!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great idea! I also don't have room for 30 boxes... Hmm... bags...
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have used bags for years and love them. Mine are boring though compared to your cute ones. The advantages to book bags over boxes-the students can take them anywhere. I also departmentalize and have a set for each class. In my homeroom, when it is pretty out, we can grab our bags and go read outside. I have also taken them if they need to wait-like during AIMs testing or ear checks, etc. Your bags make me want to update mine!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love that idea!!! How neat! And space-saving! I just might have to rethink my book boxes that I've been attached to all this time....

    Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is amazing!! I love the tote bags . . . we have a button maker at my school so I could totally save money that way!! Sweet . . . going to have to check out those bags!! Great job!!

    ReplyDelete