If you are like me, you find yourself buying many things for your classroom, and you are organizing centers on a budget. Cubbies are not cheap (like 300+ not cheap). Sometimes I feel that teacher stores do not understand that we are an underpaid profession.
Most of the cubbies at our school were purchased with grant money and given out twice a year. Also, TONS of teachers apply and the likelihood of getting one is not very high. So I decided to improvise.
I have turned shoe racks and dollar tree baskets into my math center storage AND rainbow rolling carts (organizers) for my literacy storage.
This is a picture of my library center sitting on top of my math center storage. There are 4 shoe racks there and 24 baskets!
These shoe racks were purchases from Lowe’s for 13$ a piece. There are 4 total. They also hold my classroom library center as well on top perfectly! Great way to save space. 13×4= 52$
I couldn’t find this exact one on Lowe’s website, but Target had something similar for only 10.50! Yay target!!! That’s even cheaper.
These are stackable, and I have them in a Mocha brown.
The dollar tree baskets were 1$, and it holds 24 of them. I also have colored shoebox-size containers that I can use, but I liked the baskets because they can hold recording sheets. They only came in 4 colors, so I spray-painted the purple and the yellow ones. That way, I can have center groups go to color-coded centers if I want. EVERY student gets their own center this way. GAME CHANGER!
Total cost: 76$Total time: 20 mins of assembly Total storage capacity: 24 centers
You may be able to build something cheaper with PVC pipe, but this was definitely the EASIEST DIY, and convenience is key for me!
Literacy center storage costs a little more but is still much cheaper than buying cubbies. I found these for 25$ each at Sam’s Club. Grand Total 100$. As you can see, I put yellow duct tape on the front of 6 of them because I have 6 groups I put my students in for centers. If you don’t have that many, you can skip the duct tape.
What is so great about these is that I have 40 individual centers ready that the kids can rotate through. 40 CENTERS!!! You will have to train the kids on how to pull the tubs out and put them back in, or you could have a helper do it for you. It really only took a couple of days to get used to it. These will also fit a clipboard and recording sheet. I use baskets on the top for the students to turn in their recording sheets and the jars are my I-Spy jars. That’ll be in another post. My kids LOVE those.
Organizing centers on a budget doesn’t have to break the bank.
You may only need one or the other, but each option costs less than 100$!!!
Total cost: 100$Total time: 1-2hrs of assembly Total storage capacity: 40 centers
The great thing about having so many centers is that you do not have to change them out often. TUBS are only part of my rotation, as well as the BASKETS for math. I give my kids a ton of choices, and centers run smoothly, but I’ll save that for another post. 😉
