Who loves picture icons?!? Isn’t it a joy spending endless hours creating, printing, cutting, laminating, cutting again, and then organizing them? Then of course once you’ve created all your icons there is a question of how do you store and organize them. I decided to explore ways to organize my icons when I started finding them in my house. Yes, my house. I’ve found them in my dryer, old clothes, closet, couch cushions, and the best of all…my underwear drawer. I have no clue how they ended up there, but the point is I needed to get my “organize” on! So here is a few methods that I have tried and how well they worked for me.
The Jewelry Hanger Method
Pros:
- Easy to find: all the icons are right there and easy spot.
Cons:
- Space: if you have a lot of icons, you may need several of these and they may take up lots of wall space.
- Behavior: once one of your students realizes that they can knock it off the wall and watch all the icons tumble to the floor, they will find a way (note: hanging them at a higher level never worked for me…they always found a way). And then there’s always going to be that time you take it off the wall to check the back and drop it.
The Binder Method
Pros:
- Space: binders can be stored anywhere.
- Easy to transport: binders are easy to transport. For example, if you need to carry your food icons to the lunch room, its super simple to put a binder in your backpack and go.
- Categories: it’s also convenient to tab the different sections so it’s easy to find what you are looking for.
Cons:
- Space: if you have a lot of icons, it may take several binders to house one category (i.e. food, schedule icons, etc.). You may end up with a lot of binders.
- May be difficult to find: although you can easily tab the pages, it may be time consuming to flip through all the pages to find a chosen icon. Think about the last time one of your students needed an icon ASAP and you were running around the class frantically searching before a meltdown occurred.
- Velcro: this method uses a lot of Velcro. And we all know that stuff is fuzzy gold to a special educator.
- Durability: with frequent use, most binder don’t last very long.
The Storage Container Method
Pros:
- Durable: it’s not easy breaking a large plastic box.
- Behavior friendly: if one of your students attempts to throw this or knock it over, the drawers don’t easily fall out. Sure, you may have a few icons fall out, but most will remain intact.
- Easy to store: these can be stored cupboards, bookshelves, or on flat surfaces. They look organized, so they aren’t distracting to the students if they are in the open.
- Easy to find: if you label the bins, you can see the icons on the front quick and easy. Yes, I know that sounds like a lot of work, but think of the time it will save you later on.
Cons:
- Time consuming initially: if you set it up the way I have, you have to also make little icons for the front and velcro them on. This does take time, but it’s worth it.
So what do I use in
my classroom?
I actually use a combination in my classroom. For my schedule icons (e.g. the ones that go
on their visual schedules), I put them into binders. The reason being there is a limited number of
them and I often need to carry them around the class with me. The binder is easy to transport and it’s easy
to find them with the tabs since there is a limited number.
For all the other icons, I use the storage container
method. This way I can put all my play
icons in one container, all my food icons in another container, etc. To this day, we are still working on getting
everything organized. I’d love to tell
you that it’s a 1 or 2 day project, but truth is we are constantly adding icons
and purging old ones. The struggle is indeed real, my friends,
Do you have another method that you love? Share your ideas below. I can always use fresh ideas.
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