3 BTS Binder Ideas

Hey teacher friends and welcome to the Back to School season! 

I know there are still a few of you who have a bit more time, but many are already prepping a classroom, attending an inservice, or actively teaching students right now.

WELCOME BACK!

My good friends over at Avery hooked me up with a bunch of fabulous items and a challenge to see what I could come up with to help teachers out for back to school – so here you go!

Up first is something I have always loved to do for my student led parent conferences:  a Student Portfolio!

I started with an Avery binder, tossed in some Heavyweight Presentation Sheet Protectors, and placed some Insertable Dividers in between the sheet protectors.  

I loved being able to design my divider tabs on their website as well!  I added some fun little clip art, a cute font, and spaced it just how I liked before finally printing right on the tabs from my home printer and inserting into the tab slots.  Perfect!

How to use:  At the beginning of the year, have students choose about 5-6 pieces of work they are most proud of from each subject and place in the sheet protectors. 

As the grading quarter continues, students may replace one page for another if they feel it is a better representation of his or her work.  All other work gets sent home after grading is complete. 

When parent conferences roll around, students are them able to grab his or her binder and explain each piece or work inside to the parent and why that particular work made the cut. 

It is a wonderful way to hold students accountable and have them take an active role in assessment as well.

The second idea is super fun!  

Do you want to pull your hair out when you find random puzzle pieces everywhere in your classroom?  Organize them in a binder!  Yay!

Grab an Avery Ultralast binder first – I have never seen these before and they are pretty much indestructable.  {And we KNOW how students are around supplies – ha.}

Next, use some duct tape and place on the bottom of a large gallon sized zipper baggie.  Hole punch it across the tape.

Use some Marks-A-Lot Permanent Markers and the Avery Kids Writeable Labels to write the name of the puzzle and slap the label on the baggie.  

Place your puzzle pieces inside.

Stash all the baggies into your binder and place on a bookshelf!  Score on the classroom organization!

The last fun project I have to share is actually using a small 1 inch binder that fits the 5.5″ x 8.5″ inserts.   Place some Filler Paper, Plastic Dividers, and Binder Pockets inside.

Print out some small monthly sight word lists that are broken down by the month on one page.  Print an extra copy and cut those lists up by month.

Attach the cut up months to the plastic dividers on both sides with some tape (I used some cute washi tape I already had on hand).   

Write student names on the rest of the printed lists and place in side the binder pockets.

When it is time for fluency/sight word checks, you can simple open the binder and place like an easel. 

Use some highlighters (maybe a different color for each quarter?) to notate which words the student knows and which he or she does not.

So easy to assess and super simple to take with you wherever you want.

Hopefully you were able to get some new ideas for your classroom from what I have above and just for stopping by to check it out – I have some fun freebies!

How about all the covers for all 3 projects?  Yayyyyyy!

Click on the covers below to download your freebies and enjoy!

Click here to email your freebie

Thanks so much to Avery for all the goodies they sent over and I would love to hear other ways that you use binders in your classroom below!

Talk to you soon,