Managing Supplies with Student Toolboxes

Happy Monday my friends! I’m psyched to be sharing a project I’ve been working on for my students this summer. And I’m linking it up with my dear friend Tara for her delightful…

So I think I may have posted about how much I adore my Teacher Toolbox a couple of times. Or several, really.

I just love it! It’s the ONLY part of my classroom that never once got out of order last year and I could find things so easily, even in the busiest of times.

It was so easy to manage that I would even let my 5th graders borrow items from there last year if needed…they were always SO careful to put things back in the right place.

And how could you not? Each drawer was labeled and was the perfect size for the items inside.

This got me thinking. 

What if I had smaller-scale toolboxes for my students, at each table? With everything we use during a school day?

I imagined how much easier it would be to track supplies, each in their own proper place. How much instructional time would be saved in not having to pass out materials.

So I decided to test it out. It was still June with weeks to go in our school year. I purchased this little toolbox from Walmart: Stack-On 12 Drawer Storage Cabinet and tested it out with my soon-to-be-graduating 5th graders.

It worked out great! And that was without any labels (since it was the end of the year). I decided to make it my summer project in the coming weeks.

There was only one snag.

That lovely toolbox from Walmart has been out of stock. For a long time. And while it is supposed to come back (yes, I emailed and asked obsessively!) I started thinking about how much I did NOT want to spray paint six of those toolboxes for my students.

In the end, it worked out for the best because I found some that were exactly the same and already black (no spray painting needed!). They were more expensive but honestly the time and money invested in spray painting this summer was just not worth it for me. Plus those guys are still out of stock! I ended up getting: Homak 12 Drawer Organizer. UPDATE! Our friend Emily also found them on Amazon here: Homak 12 Drawer Organizer. Thank you Emily!!

The rest was very easy. I planned out all of the items we use within our day, made some labels, laminated them, and hot glued them right to the outside of the drawers (even though I love how my teacher toolbox has the labels on the handles,
I was afraid my students would knock them off over time, so I left the
handles clear and labeled the front of the drawers):

(please don’t mind my lack of school supplies to show it off…we don’t go back ’til September and I’m holding off on buying supplies for now!)

So each toolbox will be like a complete organizer (hopefully!) with everything we need for the day.

I have some more plans for these toolboxes, so I am working on a Part Two to this post! I will be sure to show it full of school supplies next time I am in my class, so you can have a better idea of how it looks in action.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you all have a wonderful week and best of luck to those heading back to school!!