A Look Inside My Table Supply Bins

I love having community supplies for our markers, color pencils, glue, and scissors. It makes it so easy to have my Supplies Manager pass out table bins to each spot and everything the kids need is in easy access.

I made my bins for this year today and wanted to give you a peek into how I did it.

Here are the materials I used:

• Small Sterilite Bins: I bought these last year from the Target Dollar Bin and they held up wonderfully through a year of abuse-- I *love* not having to rebuy these each year!!)
• Scotch Book Tape: I have blogged about this tape before HERE and *love* it! Definitely more expensive than the regular packing tape, but worth it! (Only a teacher would get this excited over clear tape, right?!)
• Small Plastic Cups: These were 8 for $1 at the Dollar Store and they held up relatively well through the year for the cost (I think I only replaced 3 all year!)
• Medium Plastic Baskets: These are from Hobby Lobby last year, too and held up VERY well-- didn't have to replace any of them :)
• Hand Sharpeners: I put two in each bin for color pencils and put a small amount of teal duct tape so kids know these are "table supply" sharpeners
• Scissors: One for each kid and again, I used a small piece of teal duct tape to show it belonged to the table supply bins and not our community supply area
• Glue Sticks: One for each student and when one dries up/gets used up, the kids can replace it from our community supplies area
• Markers & Color Pencils: I use three sets per table (only two are shown in these pics, sorry!) and if kids need more, they can grab them from the community supplies area
• Supply Labels: I use these labels from my set found HERE.

Tip: Before I knew what baskets I would be using on the inside, I brought my Sterilite tub to the various stores that sold baskets (Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Dollar Store, etc.) and tried them out one by one. I liked the final product since these are so durable and/or replaceable on the cheap :)

The Book Tape is a wonderful thing, since it sticks like crazy, but leaves a smooth finish and leaves little residue when you peel it off at the end of the year-- can't beat that!

Here's what it looks like on the cup with just the plain sheet underneath (no need to laminate or anything else):

I store these bins on a shelf in my classroom and will let our Supplies Manager (more on class jobs soon!) know when it's time to pass them out to everyone. Because I only have five tables, it takes very little time and limits the craziness in the classroom of everyone getting up to get what they need. I also use the Bin Fairy to leave little sticker supplies to the cleanest bins so kids are encouraged to keep them nice and tidy when they are finished.

I will be back soon with a picture of my community supplies area so you can see the full picture of the rest of this system, but here's a view from the top so you can see how it all fits in the bigger bin:

Do you use table supplies in your class? How do you organize them?