I’ve had a few questions on how I organized all of my Letter of the Week and K4 Kindergarten Curriculum, so I thought I’d show you all some pictures!
Since I’ve printed ALL of my printables, I had to come up with some way to store them all! I decided binders full of page protectors was my best bet. Along the top of my Ikea Expedit Shelving unit, you will find binders…lots of binders! (They are cheap 1” binders from Wal-m*rt)
Each binder has a spine label on it indicating the letter, then inside are page protectors housing all of the games for that letter. (The spine labels are part of my Letter of the Week Curriculum in the “extras” folder and K4 Curriculum as well.)
I store small game pieces in snack size Zip-loc baggies, then put them inside the page protectors for safe keeping.
I also put several pages into one page protector, for example all of the Large Floor Numbers for Letter A are in one page protector.
If you aren’t feeling like laminating everything, page protectors are also a great way to be able to re-use the items that are to be traced like the pre-writing pages.
As you can see, I’ve put more than one game in each page protector just to make the most out of my space.
ALTERNATIVE STORAGE IDEAS: Instead of using binders, which can take up a lot of space, you might consider using 9×12 clasp envelopes. You’ll need one folder for each letter plus a few extras for review games. Label them Letter A, Letter B, and so on. Then place the individual games in snack size or sandwich size Ziploc baggies and store them inside the appropriately labeled envelope. Store your alphabet envelopes in a plastic file crate or on a bookshelf.
And that’s it! Lots of binders or folders, and some baggies and page protectors and you’re all set!
NOTE: You may not need to purchase 26 binders like I did, it will depend on how many games and such you have printed from the curriculum. I’ve had other readers say they’ve fit a few letters in each binder, so you’ll want to figure out about how much you think you can fit before going crazy in the binder isle ;o)
For the K4 Curriculum, I used 4 binders.
So, for what it’s worth, I hope that helps some of you on the organization side of things!
For more information on Letter of the Week and K4 Curriculum, click the buttons below:
I just recently sent the whole curriculum to copiesincolor.com and it was very reasonable. I think it came out to about $75 and was sent quickly. The quality was pretty good too. This can all be sent electronically. If you go to their website it tells you exactly what to do. I did have some questions and they were very helpful in answering them. Hope this helps! Sorry I couldn’t turn the website into a link (typing on my iPad and can’t seem to figure it out!)
Oh yeah! Thanks for letting me know! Last year http://www.copiesincolor.com stopped printing curriculum! I think I sent too many people their way LOL! You can also try http://www.bestvaluecopies.com too.
Wow! That sounds like a great deal compared to what I’ve already spent on ink. Such a time saver too! Love it! Great to have options! Thanks for the ideas ladies! =)
I love how you organize each letter into it’s own binder. I just recently created a lapbook using letter C from your Letter of the Week curriculum. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I am looking forward to trying it with more letters. I posted it with pics on my blog: http://www.myhomeschooltale.blogspot.com/2011/10/letter-c-lapbook.html
Thanks so much for Letter of the Week. It’s such a great resource!
Just recently purchased the Letter of the Week curriculum and I love it! Still working on printing and organizing so thanks for all the great ideas! Your work is amazing, thanks so much for sharing all your ideas! I recently shared info about your website on my blog http://tricountymommy.blogspot.com/2012/03/letter-of-week.html. Can’t wait to get started using the curriculum! Thanks again!
Do you sell a cursive pre-school curriculum? I wanted to teach my daughter the alphabet in cursive first
thanks
Children don’t learn cursive until 3rd grade and many districts are moving past even teaching it. I feel it is very important to teach it, but I can not imagine teaching cursive before a child knows how to make the letter first.
I knew I could count on you Erica. I just spent hours searching the internet for an organizing system that would work for me. I do the workbox system, but because I want to plan my curriculum in advance for next year, I am looking for something to hold “extra” games, cards, and such in until I transfer them to the workbox system. I think your blue boxes (the ones on your shelf under your LOTW curriculum binders, that are labeled FIAR, Math, etc) is what I am looking for. I read in a comment above that you got them at Lakeshore or that they are available through OT, and that you like them pretty well huh? Are they still working for you, or have you found something (whether you are currently using it or not) that you think might work better for this? Thanks in advance. 🙂
Hi Audrey,
I still use the blue bins for some of my activities, but for the LOTW I went to this: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/10/letter-of-the-week-storage.html
I got the blue boxes from Lakeshore Learning, I’m not sure about OT though, sorry! Here is the Lakshore link:
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|productSubCat~~p|TT927~~f|/Assortments/Lakeshore/Promotions/promo/ClassroomResources.jsp
Hope that helps!
Has anyone tried refilling ink at Costco?
Well, my dad has offered for me to print this curriculum at his real estate firm (thank you God) so I am planning to do this ASAP so I have time to prepare, We start HS on 09/10/12, a 6th grader, kinder and a 3 year old. Question… did u print everything on cardstock? Also are there any additional supplies I can go ahead and purchase to be prepared? My oldest (6th grade) is doing Abeka, my kinder is doing my fathers world and then my three y.o. is doing letter of the week. We have all sorts or scissors, markers and crayons, but I am unsure of what else to purchase.
What is a list of essential supplies I will need to get started ?
Erica, how do you have your K4 curriculum separated in the 4 binders? I’m trying to figure out the most logical way, but I figure you’ve probably got it already done, so why reinvent the wheel? 🙂
Where did you get your blue tray (that I see your little one doing dot-dot letters in?