Everywhere we go we are bombarded with all different forms of advertising. When you are a youngster this can be overwhelming, all these symbols, letters, and numbers. What do they all mean? We can help kids make sense of their world by exposing them to a print-rich environment. This all starts in our classroom. In addition, it helps teachers and students stay organized with minimal effort. I’m not going to lie, when you first label everything in your classroom it is a long process. When I took control of my first classroom, it took me one day to figure out where everything should and another day to label everything. I can promise you that you save at least quadruple that amount of time by being organized. Students tend to clean up after themselves much better in this environment. Teachers end up given less instruction on where all the supplies go. Also, basic classroom procedures such as where do I sign out and where does my completed work go is automatic.

Help your students learn to recognize basic objects, practice life skills, and start building a foundation for organization with these classroom labels. They’ll find it easy to sort and separate art equipment, clean-up gear, craft supplies, and more when the storage areas are clearly identified. Younger students will also benefit from the object labels, which identify basic furniture, appliances, and decorative and functional pieces, helping them learn what things are called and how to spell the names. Idea: Use different colors of paper when printing the labels to visually group items with similar functions.