How to Organise Phonics Teaching Resources: Tips for a Tidy and Efficient Classroom

Are you swimming in a mess of teaching resources? I have swum in many messes and felt like sinking, which is partly due to the fact that I have moved around to different schools quite a bit. Moving, unpacking, sorting, storing, packing up again…. It is a LOT of work. No one teaches you how to organise or store teaching resources and honestly, it could be a degree upon itself.

Not having organised resources can lead to stress, not having a smoothly run lesson and time wastage. So, it is important. I can’t really tell you how much time I have spent and wasted on organising resources. Storing phonics resources correctly, is particularly important as this is such a big part of our teaching program. 

I don’t think I have quite Marie Kondo’d my resources yet but I am on the pathway to a more simplified and organised system. I will discuss what is now working for me after trailing several different storage methods for my phonics resources. I will say what has not worked and what now works.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

1 – Storing items by just the type. I used to sort resources by the type. For example, all of my math or English resources would all go together in a large crate. It had some advantages. For example, I knew where my math and English resources were. The disadvantages were that I often lost track of what was inside these large crates and finding things was an absolute nightmare. Another disadvantage of this system is that it can actually take up more room in your class or home. Trust me on this as I have moved in several different classrooms with small to large storage spaces and it is the SAME!

2 – Throwing items in a crate. Yes, it’s great that your resources fit inside a crate and you can relocate it easier but… how many hours have you wasted trying to find items?

Resources thrown in a crate!

WHAT DOES WORK

1 – Sort your phonics resources by the SIZE and TYPE. Most of us have limited space in our classroom, office or home. Sorting resources by size means that things will simply fit into an area better and you will actually be able to find them quicker. If you know where things are, you will be able to be more organised in your preparation of lessons. When I say ‘type,’ I mean that I still do put all my phonic resources together and math resources separate but they are organised by size within their own categories. So, I have math cards in photo boxes separate to phonic grapheme/word cards in a separate photo box container.

store by size and category

2 – Organise your phonic resources by the phonic scheme your current school uses. It will most likely be in a developmentally progressive order which is great because you will undoubtedly be catering to diverse needs in your classroom. If you teach Year One, you will probably need Pre-Primary level resources and maybe even Year Two level resources (especially if you are a mainstream teacher). I am in a Language Development School so, I have Kindergarten, Pre-Primary AND Year One level phonic resources.

3 – Go through your resources once a term and sort. In the long run it will save you a lot of time.

4 – Prior to each week, I will get all of the resources I need for the following week and place my word cards in puzzle trays for each levelled group that I will be working with. The puzzle trays are a great way to differentiate your group levels as you can ask a group to get words from a particular coloured tray.

Here is a picture of what they look like when I have them out for small group centre rotations. 

phonic centre organisation

5 – I put all resources that I might use for a lesson on my teacher whiteboard trolley or close by. I don’t want to be wasting time searching for any resources when I have a class near me. I use my magnetic letter tiles for word building lessons quite a bit, so they are always near me.

Ok, now I will tell you how I use each storage container/unit to sort my phonics resources out.

1 – Photo boxes – I use my photo boxes for putting word cards in them. My word cards are based on sounds (phoneme based) but I do have some that have alternative graphemes for that phoneme. I will soon add small sentence cards and grapheme tiles for sorting within the same photo boxes. I put mine in order of the phonic scheme we use.

I then labelled the outside of the boxes because it saved me time pulling out the boxes and having a look inside. The word cards that I make also have a small word list page so I pop that at the top of the photo box. It lets me (or any other teacher) see the word cards contained in the box. I have a dymo labeller which I love however, I often find sticky labels just as quick and easy to label these boxes (and other resources with). They are also a lot cheaper than the dymo labels and easier to peel on and off. 

teacher-storage

The photo boxes are for my personal teacher storage and I don’t allow students to use them. Students use the puzzle trays that I will talk about next.

organising-teaching-resources

phonics-organisation

I have purchased several of these photo box cases from Kmart as they are currently $15 and include 12 smaller photo boxes in the carry case. I have one carry case from MTA. The colours are slightly brighter and maybe the quality is a bit better but of course, they cost more. 

organizing-teacher-supplies

2 – Puzzle trays – I have to thank a teacher friend for showing me these amazing puzzle trays. They are from Kmart and probably available elsewhere. They have been the best thing. I tip the phonic cards into the puzzle trays for group work. I currently have four phonic groups so I just use four different colours and each week they have different word cards in them.

phonics-resources

3 – Lever arch files – I tried getting rid of lever arch files, storing worksheets only electronically and also in a filing cabinet. The filing cabinet simply took too much room and I couldn’t always trust that each school would have a filing cabinet for me to use. Transferring paperwork from cabinets is an absolute nightmare (well, it was for me anyway). Storing things electronically is good in theory too but there are so many times when you just want a paper copy to go and photocopy or show someone and not have to flick through hundreds of files. This is a personal decision though!

I am very careful what I keep though. I only have lever arch files for materials I absolutely need and use regularly. I put my phonics system in order and separate each section with a file divider and have the phoneme written on it so I can easily flick through to the correct section.

phonics-teacher-resources

4 – A4 Plastic folders – These are fantastic for storing A4 laminated games in each learning area. At the moment, I have my plastic folders in a plastic tub. I do find them better when they are on a narrow shelf though as they are easier to flick through and find what you need.

The downside of these folders is that they are plastic (not environmentally friendly) but I reuse these and haven’t thrown a folder out for years. They wipe clean quite well and keep in good condition. I guess cardboard folders would be a more environmentally friendly option but you would have to label them clearly as cardboard folders are not see-through. Another advantage of the A4 folders is that they usually fit on most shelving units or book shelfs. A3 folders can be very handy but difficult to fit in a lot of areas.

plastic folder file storage

5 – A3 file – I have a large visual diary that is A3 in size and I keep any phonic game boards in this. It means I can flick through it and see what I need. This is not shown. A disadvantage of this option is that it has to lay down and it is really heavy. I will probably rethink this option pretty soon actually…

6 – Small storage boxes – These units have 24 compartments and are usually pretty cheap. Why they don’t come in 26 compartments I don’t know and it’s really frustrating. So, obviously I have two of these! I put my magnetic letters in these boxes. I have multiples of each letter for word building.

Because I use these all of the time, I have them close to my mat area. These are so much easier. I used to have my letter tiles in a hanging unit but it fell over quite a bit. Nowadays, I have the two boxes open and near me so that I can pull out letters.

letter boxes

What is next? I have two jobs to do next (does it ever end?). One job is to somehow organise my larger letters that have magnets on the back. I might run a magnetic tape along a wall or display board somewhere and pull them off as needed. The other option would be to put them in a display book? Job number 2 is to sort out the small letters that I have for students to use in small group phonic rotational activities.

large magnetic letters

Honestly, who knew that teaching would require so much organisation? I have said to many colleagues that this job is like being a constant mover of “stuff.” It is the one job where you can have so much “stuff” that it can be pretty overwhelming.

My biggest tip though, after trailing so many methods is to simply store items by their type and size. Storing items by size means that your cupboards will just be so much more organised. My other tip would be to become a minimalist. This is (I feel) such a difficult thing to be as a teacher. I literally sat with a beautiful cardboard box last week and wanted to throw it out but I kept it because I thought it would be handy for box construction. Yep, the struggle is real. I have thrown out things that I’ve regretted too. Overall though, I try to be very careful now and only keep things that I think are going to add value to my class.

Kind regards,

Jennifer