Last summer, I posted about my Bubble Pages and I have loved the feedback that I have received from many of you implementing these in your classrooms.  I wanted to share a quick post about a little system that I have implemented in my classroom this year that has saved me SOOOOO much time.  Like seriously…..oodles of time!

Please ignore the ’70’s counters and dingy walls and look at the brightly colored baskets that I used last year.  At the time, I thought these were perfect and they did serve their purpose.  I had a basket for both my fourth graders and fifth graders.  As my students completed something on their bubble page, they dropped it in the basket.  We also stored their bubble pages in the front of the baskets each day.  This worked, however every Thursday afternoon, I would spend FOREVER sorting everything by student.  I would then check over what they had, make a pile of no names, and allow students the chance to catch up during Bubble Page time on Friday.  Then on Friday, I would need to sort through new things that were added and match it to any old recording sheets from that student.  UGH!

I don’t even want to begin to calculate all of the time that I would spend each week sorting papers.

This year, I decided that their HAD to be an easier way.  With a little investment in file folders (which I ordered turquoise, received purple….but thought “Hey, my favorite color is purple…I’m going with it!”) and crates, I gave each student a folder.  This folder will be their personal “turn in tray” throughout the entire year.  As students are out and about working on their Bubble Pages, they drop anything that they have completed into their folder.  This allows them to constantly be reminded of what they already have completed.  If they forget their name on their paper, that’s ok (#wellnotok!) because it will be in their folder with the rest of their weekly work.  It also allows them to grab anything that they didn’t get a chance to finish and complete it the following day.

On Friday afternoon, one of my classroom jobs is to have a student staple all of the papers in each student’s folder.  This ensures that the folders are ready for the following week and I can quickly grade their work!

How are you organizing your bubble pages or other independent work?