The most important goal when you try to get children organized should be to make the result as fun, easy and practical as possible. You must allow for a certain amount of disorganization because they are kids, after all. But in an elementary school classroom, you can teach life skills to students as you help them organize their desks.

Planning

Cleaning out the desks is the first step. Put like items together and see what categories or groups emerge. Students can help with this stage by offering suggestions. One way to stress the importance of organization is to have them list the most frequently lost items in their desks. Some ideas could lead you to solutions. Keep in mind the issues that come up: for instance, if several students say they can't fit all their art supplies in their art boxes or that they keep losing their pencils in the backs of their desks.

Folders

Folders are crucial to keeping kids organized. Have students keep loose-leaf paper in folders instead of jammed in the corners of their desks. It'll make a big difference. Also, muster up some categories from your planning list--using different folders for different categories will make things easier to find in a hurry. Let students decorate their folders in ways that coordinate with the categories, so they'll definitely remember what each folder is for.

Containers

Keep easily lost items in containers. Pencils, pens, paper clips and erasers are of no use if they're lost in the back of the desk. If budgets are limited, students can create their own containers using recycled materials. This is also a good lesson in helping the environment. If you intend to buy containers, first think about the shapes and sizes of items that need to go inside. Consider unconventional containers--the kitchen and bathroom departments at your local store can have the perfect sizes for a lot cheaper than office supply stores do.

Maintaining Tidy Desks

If you're a teacher, build time into the day or week for regular tidying. If you're a parent, remember to praise organization and keep kids excited about it. Any adult can easily reinforce tidy habits by offering new folders, organizational bins or novelty pencils for students with tidy desks. Good old-fashioned praise works well, too. Remind them how much easier and nicer a clean desk can be.

Source:

Teachers.net

Bremer Communications