As we shake off the winter chill and welcome brighter days, it’s time to turn our attention to helping students ‘spring’ into action by teaching organization skills to students. As I walked down the hall during passing period I saw lockers overflowing with papers, jackets, PE clothes, and things I couldn’t even identify.
For me, spring is a time to open the windows, get organized, and refresh my space. Why it never occurred to me that our students could use the same refresh, I have no idea! Their overflowing lockers and backpacks are a sign that they could use a little help with their executive functioning skills specifically around organization.
Understanding Executive Functioning Skills
Executive functioning skills are a group of skills that help people set and carry out goals. They include skills such as organization, problem solving, regulating emotions, flexible thinking, planning, and task initiation.
Organization skills are valuable for our students because they help them locate and retrieve items. Someone described to me once that a student with ADHD or a student lacking executive functioning skills brain is like a filing cabinet that has been dumbed out on the floor. All of the information is there but it is really hard to access the paper you are looking for because it is somewhere in the pile.
Most students don’t naturally have amazing executive functioning skills. They are skills that need to be taught and practiced for them to learn and grow. We have many tools we can use to help our students grow these skills!
Strategies to Teach Organization Skills to Students
Modeling
Show students how to get organized. This can be done by cleaning out something together. As a class you could clean out desks, backpacks, folders, or lockers. I like to work with them on the three pile technique.
- Trash
- Keep
- Take Somewhere
When I am working with students I encourage them to pull out all trash and throw it away. This often reduces the overwhelming amount of stuff spilling out of their backpacks or the abyss that has become their locker.
Next we work together to sort the remaining items into two additional piles. The items they need to keep in that location and the items that go somewhere else. For example, when they are cleaning out their lockers they want to keep their extra school supplies in their locker but that old library book would go in the “Take Somewhere” pile.
Once they have everything out of the space and sorted we work together to put back the items that they are keeping in that space and then taking the rest of the pile to where it goes. That might mean items are going in their backpack to take home, papers are getting turned into teachers, and library books are getting returned.
Scaffold Learning
Some of our students need visuals and checklists. You can make a three pile visual for students that includes boxes for trash, keep, and take somewhere. For students who need checklists, you could create a checklist to help them remember what they need to take home each night. This could be taped inside their locker. You can also create a checklist on how to clean out your locker.
- Throw away trash
- Sort papers – Take home, turn in, trash
Incorporate Technology
Students live in a tech world. Incorporate technology into executive functioning practice. Show students how to set reminders on their devices to remember to take certain items home. They could schedule library book due dates in their calendar or clean out days.
Students can also practice executive functioning skills online. You can make slides or boom cards where students can organize the items on the pictures for practice. Don’t have time to create the lessons? No worries, I have done the hard part for you! Save yourself time and give your students organizational practice with my Getting Organized Boom Cards. These are great for independent practice and are low prep for you!
Engaging Activities to Promote Executive Functioning
Organizational Challenges
The activity and challenge that I love doing most with kids is the messy backpack challenge. This is an excellent activity to help students understand WHY they would want to clean out their belongings and get organized. They also have a blast playing!
Before my lesson, I get a backpack and fill it with old papers, waded-up lined paper, school supplies, and anything that I think students might have in their bags. I also hide some things in the mess. I might throw in a picture day flyer, a sticky note inside a folder, or other fun papers.
When the lesson begins I ask for a volunteer to find an item in my backpack. I tell them that I am going to time them and set a time limit of 30 seconds to 1 minute. Students are eager to raise their hands and participate. From their seats, they think the challenge is easy. It usually takes multiple tries before a student can find the item.
Peer Collaboration
Give your students an opportunity to showcase their organizational strategies. Allow students time to brainstorm ideas for organization. Ask them to share strategies that work for them. Depending on the grade they might not have any strategies yet. You can ask them to brainstorm organization techniques they could try. Share some of your own strategies and tips.
As you are cleaning out lockers and backpacks utilize your super organizers to help those that are struggling. This gives your students with excellent organizational skills an opportunity to teach their peers and provides peer help to your students who are struggling.
Implementing Getting Organized Boom Cards
Overview
Boom cards are self-guided digital task cards that students can access on any device with an internet connection. Executive Functioning Getting Organized Boom Cards are a set of 33 boom cards that help students practice organizational skills for their school environment, home transition, bedroom, clothing management, and kitchen organization.
Benefits
- Low Prep – Easy set up!
- Self-Checking – Students can work independently and receive ongoing feedback
- Interactive – A fun way for students to practice their organization skills
- Comprehensive
- School Organization: Students will master the art of sorting and decluttering their backpacks and lockers, creating an efficient learning environment.
- Home Transition Skills: Learn effective techniques for managing school items upon arriving home, promoting a seamless school-to-home transition.
- Bedroom Organization: Gain hands-on experience in organizing personal spaces, fostering independence and responsibility.
- Clothing Management: Develop practical skills in sorting and organizing clothing, an essential life skill for students of all ages.
- Kitchen Organization: Apply organizational principles to common kitchen items, enhancing daily life skills and promoting self-sufficiency.
Tips for Integration
Boom Cards are super flexible because students can work independently on them. Boom Card practice could be a bell ringer activity at the beginning of class. You could also use Boom Card practice as an early finisher activity for students.
I like to use Boom Cards as an activity in my small executive functioning groups. It is a change of pace from worksheets and discussions. They also work great in a full class lesson. Your options are endless with this low-prep tool!
Conclusion
As we embrace the vibrant renewal of spring, let’s inspire our students to do the same by cultivating their executive functioning skills. Just like the flowers that bloom when given the right care and attention, our students can flourish when equipped with the tools they need for organization and success. With overflowing lockers and backpacks as a clear sign of the areas where they need support, it’s essential that we take action to help them develop these vital skills.
By implementing strategies like the three-pile technique and incorporating technology, we can create an environment that encourages growth and organization. To make this journey even easier for you, I invite you to explore my Getting Organized Boom Cards. These self-guided digital task cards are designed to provide your students with interactive practice in essential organizational skills, all while requiring minimal prep from you.
Help your students spring into action and take charge of their learning. Purchase the Getting Organized Boom Cards today, and watch as your students transform their chaotic spaces into organized havens, ready to tackle their academic challenges with confidence!
