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Organizing Rightstart manipulatives? ideas?


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I feel like this is something I should be able to figure out... but I'm in a bit of a hurry to finally get our schoolroom (read lives) organized.  Right now everything is just in one big bin and because my prep time is really limited I end up rifling through looking for certain things...  What are ways you all have organized things?  The manipulatives are such vastly different sizes and shapes I can't figure out one good way to do it.  

 

Thanks!

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I just keep them in a large bamboo basket with a lid. The books and alabacus are standing up at one end, I have the smaller manipulatives (tiles, coins, weights, place value cards, gard game cards) in a mid-sized Rubbermaid container, each in a separate baggy. The scale, reflector and clock are just set inside. (I don't have the blocks, just use our regular building blocks which work in most cases. I also don't have other manipulatives that we won't need till RS C or D.) It's not especially well organized, but it keeps things in one place and it's easy to find the manips we need for each lesson.

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I used a two level plastic bin that snapped together, when I tried to put them all together I ended up with them on top of each other but in a two part container it kept most everything visible and I sorted it by what we were using at the moment in the top box.

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OK...  So I'm thinking of at least sorting through what I have and putting everything I won't use this year away somewhere.  And I'm considering putting some of the cards, card games, appendices, etc... organized in a binder.  Anyone do this?  I'm really tempted to get a little plastic drawer thing just for RS... but I've been weaning myself off of those because I'm trying to streamline and keep everything on bookshelves or in bins on bookshelves.  

 

Thanks for the ideas!  Keep 'em comin!  :)  Bonus points for pictures.  I'm usually really good at organizing but I can't wrap my head around this.  

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For level A, rubberband the card sets individually, place miscellaneous things each into envelopes with labels, then put them all into a dishpan.  I recently went through level A and made a list of the manipulatives used by chunks of the tm.  

 

Lessons 1-39

colored 1" tiles

tally sticks

multiplication cards

Card Games book-5th edition

geoboards 

basic # cards

dry erase board and marker

 

Lessons 40-88

math balance

reflector (small mirror)

centimeter cubes

place value cards

 

Lessons 89-end

Casio SL-450L calculator

geometric solids

geared clock

tangrams

fraction chart

 

Don't have more than what you need in that ready access location (for me a dishpan).  Everything else can go in a box in the closet to be accessed later.  Also, it's really not necessary to be hyper organized with those early cards in level A.  You're not going to use them again in B.

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I just keep it all, except the balance, the abacus and a jar of tiles, in a plastic box with a lid on a school shelf. things in the bin get rearranged often because I am teaching two levels. Sometimes I have to hunt through the box a bit, but it never takes long to find what we need. Within the box, I have card decks rubber banded and other small things in their ziploc bags.

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I attached my picture...I've never done that before on my iPad so hopefully it works. I have all our school stuff in these ikea drawers and all the RightStart stuff (minus the drawing board) fits in these three drawers, with room for a few extra math games to boot. In the drawers, a lot of stuff in in baggies to keep it separate.
 

ETA: I think I got the picture this time...The picture is too little to read the writing, but I essentially wrote the contents of each drawer on the outside, and when we reorganize someday, I will use rubbing alcohol to remove the marker.

 

post-30423-0-48748200-1416945589_thumb.jpg

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I use a basket on my bookshelves. If it is used frequently (or is very small) it goes in the basket. If it is only used for certain lessons (like the fraction chart) it stays in a box put away in the basement.  The box is easily accessible if I have to run to get something in the middle of a lesson.

 

One thing that really helped is getting a box to hold coins; the small cards that show the ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands; and the ones and tens of the place value cards. It is something like a craft organizer box.   It is easy to grab and go. Everything else just stays in its original bag or wrapped in a rubberband.

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