Literacy Center Organization Tips

Have you ever found and prepped the perfect literacy center for preschool children and then didn’t know what to do with it once they have used it?
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I can’t tell you how many times I have prepped and re-prepped the same activity over and over again, because I could never find the perfect solution to my storage situation.  Well not any more!   I have finally found the perfect way to store all of my different types of literacy center materials and the best part about it is that I can set it up in a snap for the children to use.
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So in today’s post, I will be sharing ideas on how to organize your own literacy center materials so you can have activities ready in a snap.
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How do you organize learning centers?

​Literacy centers are in my learning center rotation daily so that means that I’m having to access them often like everyday.  
Over the years I have found that having my literacy center materials organized can save me valuable time and MONEY I mean who doesn't love saving their hard earned money. 
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​I have several different ways that I organize my literacy center materials.  There are two different types of materials that I organize and each one gets organized a little bit differently.
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​The first one that I want to talk about is all of the printable materials that I use.  These are the ones that I can just make copies of and then set out items for the children to interact with like dot markers, stickers, hole punches and even hammers with golf tees. For this type of literacy center I like to keep all of the originals in a sleeve protector and in a binder in alphabetical order. 
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​Now for the second type of literacy materials you know the ones that you have taken hours of your time laminating and then cutting them out.  These are the ones that I really don’t  want to have to create all over again.  Who wants to waste that kind of time every year? Not ME! ​

​So for laminated games and cards I like to keep in a plastic photo organizing boxes with ABC letter tabs.  This way I can grab the letter knowledge activity or phonological activity that we will be working on.  I just have to pull and grab a tray to set up a highly engaging literacy activity.  See what I mean you can set up your activity in a snap.

​I know you are all wondering what about all of the letter manipulatives right. Well I have you covered on that end too.  I like to keep all of my letter manipulatives in 8 oz clear food containers, but here is the trick.  I separate my letter manipulatives  based on my curriculum.  What I mean by that is that I place four letters in one container based on how we introduce them, so by units.  So each box only has four different letter manipulatives in each.  Uppercase and lowercase letters are in different boxes as well.  I do like to keep a few boxes of the whole alphabet so that I can differentiate activities as needed. 

​All supplemental materials that I use to enhance activities are kept in plastic photo boxes so that everything can be close at hand to mix things up when needed.

Here is a list of items that I like to keep with all of my literacy center materials

• Clothes Pins
• Pom Poms
• Mini Erasers
• Magnetic Wands
• Spinners  
• Hammers with Golf Tees
• Jumbo Push Pins

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How do you store Center activities?

My non theme activities are stored like I talked about above, but if it is seasonal or geared toward a certain theme then I keep all of those monthly items in one storage tote with each individual center activity in mesh zipper pouch document bags.  This allows for quick simple planning and prepping of weekly activities.
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Example of Monthly Themes
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November

• Family
• Turkey Time
• Fall Fun
• Three Bears

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