Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Monthly Themed Binder Covers

This is my first official "preschool" post to kick off this new chapter in our lives.

Step 1 of starting preschool at home - GET ORGANIZED!
After a week spent finding and downloading material for our lessons I quickly became overwhelmed when I started to print just the first 2 weeks out! I needed a better game plan.

After researching how other moms organized their material I decided to go with the binder method. It's cheap, easy to organize, and has quick access. I decided to do my binders by month since there are so many different categories of material to be covered {like themed holidays, reading, math, tracing, coloring, cutting, sorting, sequencing, ....}. The only categories that I wanted to keep separate and not "assign" a month were the Bible lessons and Spanish.

So I bought 14 of the economy {cheap} 1" binders from Target. I also bought 4 packs of 100 sheet protectors at Target since they were the cheapest. I divided the sheet protectors up between the binders and I can already tell you I probably need another pack or two of them.

Today I ordered 14 Big Tab Insertable Dividers, 8-Tab
I only ordered because our local Office Depot didn't have 14 of anything! I will organize the 8 tabs as follows although may not be in this exact order:
  1. Letter (Emma will have letters of the month and Reese will start sight words with those same letters *this will start in September since June-August are review months)
  2. Number (the numbers for the month for each Reese & Emma)
  3. Shape (shape of the month worksheets)
  4. Opposites (they will have an opposite concept of the month)
  5. Nursery Rhyme (1 nursery rhyme per month activities)
  6. Theme (monthly themed lesson work organized by weeks for each girl)
  7. Books (activities for the books that will be read that month based on the theme)
  8. Holiday (activities for any holiday that month)
I made monthly themed binder covers & spine labels to organize all the preschool work I have planned.
They are each a different color and we will focus on that color for the month. Again, June-August are review months so I used more advanced colors for these covers since it doesn't really matter. 



I even made covers & spines for a Bible binder and a Spanish binder!

I mostly followed this tutorial  for making the covers but decided not to make my spines transparent and instead added a doodle frame to the spine to help make reading the words easier. This was A LOT of work and time spent making these but I fell so much more organized!

I can easily look at the cover of a binder and know what the color of the month is, the theme & holidays (although I didn't put every holiday on them). Easter rotates between March and April so I left it off the covers.

I'm thinking of selling these but first need to figure out all the logistics of the images I used.



11 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! As an early childhood educator, I am very impressed with what you're planning! If you're looking for a little bit of advice, I would just suggest doing a letter each week instead of each month. That gives you plenty of time to get through the entire alphabet, along with some weeks where you can review or go over the more difficult letters. At Emma's age, exposure is what you're going for while at Reese's age, you can start writing and letter sounds.

These girls are so lucky to have such a dedicated mom!

Tonya said...

Thank you very much!!

Yes, letter of the week or "letters of the month" :) Reese has already finished the whole alphabet so I will start sight words and reading. I want to wait till Sept to start letters of the week with Emma so she's almost 3 (about the same age Reese started it). We will use this summer to review and it will be my learning period too!

Unknown said...

I soooooo wish these were available! I would love to use them in my Kindergarten classroom!!!!!

Tonya said...

Thanks Brittany! Maybe I'll post a freebie link to them soon. Haven't had the time to research all my "free" graphics for logistics on resale yet.

Shelley said...

I LOVE these! :) As a Homeschool mom and teaching 2 Preschoolers myself this year I would love to have them to organize their work. Especially since I use a printable Curriculum ;) If they become available I would love to get them! :)

Tiffany Boyce said...

Any developments on posting a printable link?? I would love love love to use these for my kids!!

Unknown said...

Ditto for wishing to use these! Your organization for building the curriculum is fantastic btw, simple and clean, perfect for pre-k! (My daughter just turned 3- so we are still pretty basic :) )

Unknown said...

Would love to know if these are becoming available! Overhauling my curriculum binders at work and making binders for home as well. Love your designs.

Sharli said...

I would love these binder covers as well! They are super cute! Let me know if you post a printable link!!

Unknown said...

I would also love the binder covers! They are adorable. Please let us know! :)

Unknown said...

I would love to have these binder covers for my classroom! They are so cute! Please let me know if and when they become available!:-)