How to Organize Centers in Kindergarten the Easy Way

Ready to organize your centers? Here’s my simple solution (and why it works) on how to organize centers in kindergarten.

I’m not a craaazy organized person, although you may think differently if you’re a reader of mine. I love to be organized and I function better when I am organized… but you just can’t be uber-organized when it comes to being a kindergarten teacher.

If you were, you’d have containers within containers within containers – it’d be gorgeous of course, and make for a pretty Pinterest photo – but that just doesn’t hold up to what your average kindergartener can manage. They have a threshold for organization at the ages of 5 and 6 {on a whole}

Yet, I do think that you can create easy organization for many areas of the classroom that’ll work for both you and your students. There is a happy medium.

We’re going for: looks great, functions great, kinders do it independently, doesn’t take way too much time. That’s what we aim for when we’re talking about making an organized classroom in kindergarten.

For example, keep your floors clean and keep students from bringing you every little thing they find (or dumping it on your desk) by trying this brilliant system of responsibility.

Or, you may want to know how to organize centers in kindergarten so your room doesn’t look like a bomb went off every.single.day.

I hear you.

So let’s tackle it! Organizing centers can feel overwhelming but remember what we’re going for…

• looks great
• functions great
• kinders do it independently
• doesn’t take way too much time

Organizing Literacy Centers

My solution to organizing centers in kindergarten is pretty basic but it works. I used two different organization/storage solutions. I used drawer units and dollar store bins – they are my center organization magic.

Let me share why they work for kindergarten.

Labels are your friend

First off, you can label bins and drawers with picture icons.

This is huge in kindergarten! Your students will rely on them to get things back where they need to go without your help (independence is key, remember) and be more successful without reminders.

Both the bins and drawers are deep enough for picture labels.

They are inexpensive

Okay, well, the drawer units aren’t exactly inexpensive (when compared to $1/bin) but you get at least 3 drawers when you buy a tower… and the bins are a buck. You can buy a ton of those and who cares if they only last a year? Mine often lasted longer.

Go for the same style of bin when getting yourself set up. It will add to the look of being uber-organized without extra steps.

Clean up is easy

Bins/baskets work for kinders to be able to clean up into! Generally, they should be able to just “put” stuff into a drawer or bin and be done. For real.

Anything else can just about be too time-consuming or is more hassle than it’s worth to get them to comply on a regular basis. Since centers are an everyday sort of thing, this matters.

Here is a post that has a list of all my literacy centers so that you can see what types of materials I keep around and how we keep them organized.

I hope that can help as you organize your kindergarten literacy centers. Keep it simple and don’t let “the stuff” rule your classroom.

More Centers

• How to Create Smart Literacy Centers that Last All Year
• Retell Literacy Center {20 Famous Story Retelling Ideas and Printables}
• Kindergarten Literacy Centers {Details, Workboard, Routine}
• How to Make a Big Book Literacy Center