Using Your Cricut to Organize Classroom Supplies
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.
As teachers, it is not new news that this year is going to be unlike any other and that heading back to school in the midst of a pandemic is going to require us to rethink many of the ways that we organize our classrooms. One that immediately came to mind when I thought about my classroom were the supplies. If this were a typical year in my classroom, our supplies would be communal. There would be caddies on tables holding pencils, highlighters, and sticky notes and a variety of bins around our room containing art supplies and math manipulatives. But with all of the precautions in place to keep our students safe and students rotating the days they are in school, I had to get a little creative when thinking about storing student supplies this year. Thankfully, labelling materials has never been easier by using my Cricut Joy! Check out some ideas for organizing supplies below:
Idea #1: Supply Boxes and Pouches
It’s no secret to teachers that students come in each year with their favorite pencils, markers, erasers, and other small supplies. This year, however, it is going to be extremely important that students keep track of which materials specifically belong to them. To help keep their handheld supplies organized, pencil boxes or pouches are small but mighty! If you don’t already have these on your supply list, I found them for $1 or less each at a variety of stores, so they are both useful and affordable!
Idea #2: XL Supply Storage Bags
Once smaller supplies are organized and labeled, there are folders, notebooks, workbooks, etc to worry about. This year, I stumbled upon some extra large, heavy duty plastic bags that will easily fit all of these larger supplies, along with the smaller pencil cases or pouches inside with no problem! I used the Ziploc brand Big Bags, but you can find a variety online. With students sharing desks on different days (hello hybrid model), it is going to be so important for students to easily pack up materials. I am thinking I will have students hang their bag in their cubbies when they are not at school for easy storage!
To create both projects, the steps are basically the same. Read on to find out what you will need and how to personalize your own organization materials in the classroom!
To personalize these projects, you will need:
-Your Cricut Joy Machine
–Cricut Smart Vinyl in a color of your choice
-Pencil cases/boxes or pouches and/or oversize bags for each student
Step-by-step directions:
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Create a design in Cricut Design Space that you can begin with and change student names as needed. If you do not have a Design Space membership, you can create one here!
A few important notes:
*Make sure that you pay careful attention to the size of the design so that it will fit within the clear space on a pouch or on the top of a supply box.
*You can use any fonts that you love, but if you like my design, I used the Cricut font “Straight and Simple” for the tall student names and “Lia’s Wedding Font” for the other words on the box. Both are free with your Design Space membership!
*To insert clipart, like the pencil you see in my design, simply use the Images tab in Design Space and look for an image you may want to insert. It helps to filter it to “cut only” and “single layer” for easier cutting.
*Don’t forget to highlight all parts of your design and press “Attach” before cutting to keep your words and images in place!
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Once your design is ready, cut your Smart Vinyl to size and load it into your Joy Machine and begin your cut. Remember that you do not need to use a cutting mat with Smart Vinyl!
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After your cut is complete, peel off the excess vinyl and weed out the inside of any letters or images.
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Using transfer tape, stick your design to the pencil box, pouch, or bag, use your scraper tool to firmly stick the vinyl, and peel off the transfer tape.
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Follow steps 1-4 for each student in your class (simply by changing the name on the design) and you are ready to go!
And that’s it! If you have any questions or need help with your design, send your questions my way! Happy organizing and best wishes for a fantastic (but crazy) school year!
