Today you are going to work on taking those fabulously organized materials that you have and get your first month ready. This will involve taking them out of their file cabinet and into an accessible crate.

1. Gather your crates. Before you begin, it is very helpful to have crates, file boxes, or plastic bins ready to go. I use crates for file folder activities and printouts and bins for larger items. These should be small enough to store in your speech room, car, or closet at home. Include leveled and labeled hanging folders in the creates to make them portable therapy centers. Use hanging file folders that are labeled Language Level 1, 2, 3, etc. Include any homework that you have prepared for the month in the crate as well. This crate is your portable therapy center. Aside from large books, card decks, or games, everything that you need for the month’s lessons should be in this crate.

2. Pull out your materials. To get started, you are going to pull all of your month/season/theme activities out from their storage space. I store all of my materials from other months in a large filing cabinet in my room. Put the pulled month’s materials into a crate, file box, or other large items. It should be small enough to store in your speech room, car, or closet at home. 

3. Print and prepare. For digital items that are not already prepared, pull up your lesson plans and start printing, cutting, laminating, or anything else you need to do. 

4. Sort by level. Using your lesson plans, put your materials into your crates and organize them by level.

5. Develop a routine. Doing this activity for one month is just the beginning. Write it onto your monthly calendar so that at least one week before each new month begins, you will have gone through this procedure. Your materials should be ready to use on the first day of each new month (or season). And last month’s materials should immediately be put away in your file cabinet. This is super easy because the materials are already sorted. Just transfer them!

Get into the habit of returning materials immediately back into the crate after you use them so that you can find them again the next day. No materials lying around the room! Then at the end of the month, put everything from your crate straight back into your file cabinet, closet, basement, etc.

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Homework

1. Get a crate, file box, or other containers. I recently saw crates at Target for under $4. Put leveled hanging file folders in the crates.
2. Pull out your materials.
3. Print and prepare any digital files.
4. Sort the materials by level. Put the leveled materials in the crate.
5. Develop a routine. Write down what you are going to do and by when.
6. Share your progress with the community!

Link to ROADMAP for all lessons.