32nd Day: A Dotty System for Keeping Track of Supplies

I have to admit: We don't use crayons and markers as often as we should in my classroom. I already have plans to change that paucity during the upcoming school year. With insight from Jen Runde and Jennifer Smith Sloane and Mor Zrihen, I have lots of plans for Interactive Notebooks in both literacy and math.

Still, I have never seen the need for thirty-five boxes of crayons, markers, and colored pencils. We are more-than-crowded in our little room with kids and books. We use shared supply boxes in my classroom and it just works for us.

But it was not a system completely without difficulties. For years, I found myself frustrated when an item would be on the floor and I would be asking (more than once): "Which table is missing a blue marker?" or some variation of that question.

Fortunately, that all changed when I employed the dot system.

The supplies for this system are minimal. I have six tables groupings, so I need six colors of adhesive dots. I generally use blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and red, but those colors don't all come in one package. This year, I found the neon dots at the 99¢ Store and the Avery dots were calling my name at the local office supply store. Luckily, I use the leftover colors to label books in my classroom library, so nothing is wasted.

The final requirement is a package of pre-cut tape strips. These are often packaged with an around-your-wrist band or a small round dispenser to make it easier to grab hold of the tape. Of course, you can use "regular" tape, but these pieces are already all the same size. No thinking involved. I find "regular" tape dispensers to be a little... unreliable. I used to end up looking like an episode of I Love Lucy with tape wrapped around my wrist. And halfway through the first box of markers, I was already less-than-delighted with the whole process...

Our "table boxes" have markers, colored pencils and crayons (along with some other non-dot-worthy items). See those green dots? Those are my pathway to sanity...

 

Here are the markers from the green table box...

 

And here are the colored pencils...

 And here are the crayons...

 

Hey! No dots! Truth: I used to put dots on the crayons too. Now I buy my crayons for twenty-five cents at WalMart during the Back-to-School sale. I am simply not going to work that hard to keep track of crayons! I usually buy an extra box or two if a student cares enough to go searching for a missing color. So, you see, I haven't completely lost my marbles (close, but not completely!) But it is rare that we lose markers, colored pencils or crayons!

I can usually get all of the supplies "dotted" during one (at home) movie. More than once I have dotted up the supplies during a long car ride. I also add dots to the boxes and I double reinforce the "flaps" with tape so that they will last through the year. It's a little investment in time during the summer that carries us all the way to June.

Later this month, I will share the whole "table box" system, but the dots are my favorite part!. Do you have any strategies that make it easy for your students to keep track of supplies? I'd love to hear about your system too!